[indiana-discuss] disappearance of SUNWgnu-libiconv and other issues with 111a

[Matt Ingenthron]

Hey Juergen,

Just to followup and say thanks, and solve the mystery for the thread... 
I've solved the issue.  More below...

Juergen Keil wrote:
> 2009/5/3 Matt Ingenthron <ingenthr at cep.net>:
>   
>> Juergen Keil wrote:
>>     
>>> 2009/5/3 Matt Ingenthron <ingenthr at cep.net>:
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>>> This assumes the upgrade from 2008.11 to build 111a did not
>>>>> install the new grub bits, but the menu.lst file was rewritten
>>>>> and now uses those zfs gang blocks, and the old grub cannot
>>>>> read the file any more?   What kind of error is reported by the
>>>>> grub console when you try a "cat /boot/grub/menu.lst" ?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>> No error.  I see the file on the screen.  This is, of course, after I've
>>>> done the findroot.
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Hmm, with a VirtualBox 2.2.2 guest install and build 111a,
>>> I can enter the grub console and cat /boot/grub/menu.lst,
>>> without having to use findroot!
>>>
>>>       
>> Well, in my case, grub is loaded but presumably doesn't even know which of
>> the partitions on the disk to operate with, right?  In your case, you've
>> dropped to the grub menu after loading a number of parameters, including
>> that there is this thing called rpool on a particular disk.
>>
>> Maybe I misunderstand what the findroot is doing and prematurely did the
>> findroot.
>>
>> I tried just now and got "Error 25: Disk read error"
>>     
(snip...)
>> I've just tried and yes, I can cat the splash.xpm.gz.  Any thoughts on how
>> to get grub back in shape on this box?
>>     
>
> I currently have no idea what's broken on your system...
>
>
> When you boot and the system stops at the grub> console:
> what is reported by grub's "root" command?  Does it report
> that it uses a zfs root filesystem?
>
> grub> root
>  (hd0,0,a): Filesystem type is zfs, partition type 0xbf
>   

So, it turns out I'd burned a CD of OpenSolaris which was in the drive.  
I'd never used/tested it, and apparently the grub which was coming up 
was off of the CD, not the HDD.  Since it just dropped to the console 
without much other info and I didn't even notice the small read from the 
CD drive on reboot, I was confused.

After ejecting the CD, everything behaves as expected.  Troubleshooting 
lesson learned :)

Thanks again for the help,

- Matt