[Bug 923070] Re: Cloning GRUB2/GRUB-legacy makes clone not bootable

[Francis Lamonde]

By root partition I mean the whole partition from sector 1, which
includes MBR.

'sudo dd if=/dev/sdxy ibs=4096 conv=noerror | gzip -9 >
/img/filename.img.gz'

is supposed to copy MBR as well, unless I made a mistake in my command? That is possible, I will re-verify, Phil.
Listen, I will retry that above command and see what it does, unless you tell me right away it's wrong.


Hey wait... you know what? I think I did not use the above command yet in my tests, I did it on the same disk, backup and restore on the same disk, but I used g4l to restore to the OTHER disk, the cloned one.
And in g4l I am cloning sdb1 to sda1, not sdb to sda so it "probably" does not copy the MBR ( have to check that assumption).

Now you mention about this, it makes me think... since I do restores on
the cleanly installed Kubuntu, grub2 is already there, therefore if I
don't copy and restore the MBR, it doesn't change anything cuz the MBR
already has grub2 in it. That would make sense. I think that might be
the problem, I have to check a few things and do a couple more tests.

I'll be back, tnx for pointing this out.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to grub2 in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/923070

Title:
  Cloning GRUB2/GRUB-legacy makes clone not bootable

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  grub2 v1.99 included with Kubuntu 11.10.
  ALSO TESTED WITH
  grub-legacy part of Kubuntu 11.10 packages (Muon).

  
  I have 2 identical disks, the only difference being their manufacturer serial number (disk ID) or UUIDs if using them.

  Before trying Kubuntu I was (And still am due to this problem) with
  openSUSE.

  Both disks have the exact same partition table.
  Both disks run exactly the same with the same distro, same grub-legacy, same data on each.
  I can boot each disk in any order I want, whether they are both connected at the same time or any of them connected alone.
  I can swap the order of the disks and boot no problem.

  These disks are used in a testing and backup configuration and
  requirements, therefore I often make images of partitions and restores
  them, on any disk, as I wish. It always works, using 'dd' from inside
  the distro or 'g4l', the Ghost For Linux application on a bootable CD.

  
  My problem:
  With Kubuntu 11.10 I realized when I clone the disk or root partition, the cloned disk becomes UNBOOTABLE, not matter if I use grub2 or grub-legacy!
  Everything works fine on the disk I installed Kubuntu on. The one I clone does not boot/startup grub (grub2 or grub-legacy, I get the EXACT same behavior).

  
  Example:

  DISK1
  sda1 linux partition
  sda7 temp partition
  I have other partitions for DATA purposes only.
  The root and boot are in sda1.

  DISK2
  sdb1 linux partition
  sdb7 temp partition
  I have other partitions for DATA purposes only.
  The root and boot are in sdb1.

  With openSUSE I can clone sdb1, sda1, sdb7 and sda7 and restore the
  images to the other disk or the same disk and both disks remain
  bootable, no matter the order and no matter if one or both are
  connected at the same time. This is my requirement and openSUSE
  fulfills it.

  If I CLEAN install Kubuntu 11.10 on DISK2 connected alone (it becomes
  sda1), I can boot it no problem,

  The problem occurs if I clone sdb1 and sdb7 of DISK2 to sda1 and sda7
  on DISK1. Then DISK1 does not boot grub2 (or grub-legacy) menu no
  matter what. Alone, both disks, 1st or 2nd, problem is the same. I get
  a blank screen with a fast blinking cursor top left and only CTRL-ALT-
  DEL works. My DISK1, newly cloned BYTE PER BYTE including MBR and
  partition tables becomes totally unusable.

  This is an obvious show-stopper for me cuz the cloned disk is not
  bootable!

  But if I image sdb1 on DISK2 and restores it to sdb1 on DISK2, it
  works! On another disk, it doesn't. No matter if it's grub2 or grub-
  legacy!

  This problem is not existent with openSUSE using grub-legacy.

  
  What's the problem with Kubuntu 11.10?
  And how to fix it so that a simple clone will work (re-installing grub2 or grub-legacy after a clone is not an option, this defeats the purposes of my cloning requirements).

  Thank you

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/923070/+subscriptions