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https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=729667

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=729667#c0


           Summary: grub error after each kernel-update: "Error 16:
                    Inconsistent filesystem structure"
    Classification: openSUSE
           Product: openSUSE 11.4
           Version: Final
          Platform: i686
        OS/Version: openSUSE 11.4
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Critical
          Priority: P5 - None
         Component: Bootloader
        AssignedTo: jsrain@xxxxxxxx
        ReportedBy: Yarny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         QAContact: jsrain@xxxxxxxx
          Found By: ---
           Blocker: ---


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Short summary:
I'm running 4 32bit machines with openSUSE 11.4 and each time there is a kernel
update, at least one or two of those (different ones each time) refuse to
(re)boot afterwards.  Grub shows its menu for a few seconds and then
immediately says "Error 16: Inconsistent filesystem structure".  On each
machine, the boot partition is ~80MiB ext2.  fsck.ext2 (from LiveCD) says
everything's OK.  Recreating the boot partition with mkfs.ext2 fixes the
problem until the next update arrives.

A bit more details.
(This is mostly a copy from
<URL:http://forums.opensuse.org/forums/english/get-technical-help-here/install-boot-login/467492-opensuse-11-4-grub-error-16-after-every-kernel-update.html>)

Here's what I did/observed this Tuesday:
* "zypper update", which (besides other stuff) listed kernel-default. I
confirm.
* After this is done, I did "shutdown -r now" to reboot.
* Grub shows its menu (text mode only, I don't have the graphical bootsplash
installed). After 3 sec or so timeout, it tries to boot as always, but
immediately says "Error 16: Inconsistent filesystem structure".

Unfortunately, this problem occurs only randomly. I'm running 4 64bit machines
and 4 32bit machines. Up to now it happened only on 32bit machines and at every
kernel-update, it occurs on 1 or 2 of my machines.  To fix this, I have to boot
from external media and recreate the broken boot-partition (i.e. copy files to
some temporary place and do a "mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1", then copy back on the new
filesystem).  Then I mount everything, chroot in my to-be-fixed system and run
"grub-install".  After that I can boot from harddisk again.

The filesystem which is inconsistent according to grub is ok according to
fsck.ext2. I checked this before rewriting the filesystem with mkfs.ext2.  The
system where it happened yesterday contains only one harddisk with two
partitions: sda1 is /boot, ext2, 80MiB; sda2 is a luks-encrypted lvm container.
 Partition table is gpt, grub is installed in the mbr (I think).  The way I
installed these systems I a bit unorthodox: I basically set up the partitioning
scheme by hand and mounted everything, then did a "zypper -R /mnt/root install
..". While this might contribute to the triggering of this behavior, it still
believe there is an underlying bug that is causing this mess.  I have no other
explanation for this to happen only randomly, but not always.

In the last months I always just "fixed" this as fast as possible to move on. 
On Tuesday I made a copy of /dev/sda1 ("cat /dev/sda1 > file") right after
booting my rescue system.  I also updated two other 32bit machines without
problems.  Another 32bit machine is still awaiting the kernel update (I did not
"zypper update" yet).

Sadly, I don't see an obvious way to reliably reproduce the problem (without
waiting for the next kernel update).  I can share my boot-partition-image with
you which I created before fixing it, also log-files and other data.  But since
all 4 32bit machines are production systems my ability to do experimentation
with them is limited.  But if it would be helpful I can try to collect more
data when updating my remaining not-updated machine.

Reproducible: Sometimes

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