GNU bug report logs - #21068
guix system: error: build failed: path `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is not valid

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: guix system: error: build failed: path `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is
 not valid
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:56:59 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello,
I am using lubuntu 14.04 and I installed the binary version of guix 
following the documentation ( 
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Binary-Installation.html#Binary-Installation 
)

Then I ran `guix pull`, made a new partition (ext4) and tried to run 
`guix system init` on it:

$ sudo guix system init /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt

The config.scm is attached. The interesting part is that I specified to 
install grub on /dev/sda9 ( the root partition for guix) instead of 
/dev/sda. The command failed saying that "Embedding is not possible" ( 
here details: https://paste.debian.net/282642/ ).

Following the advice got from Mark on the IRC channel I tried specifing 
the --no-grub flag, but got an other error:

tyrion ~$ sudo guix system init --no-grub /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt
[sudo] password for tyrion:
warning: failed to install locale: Invalid argument
/gnu/store/q32xg8nmyjwrl5yc18hj7ay5h4rgzkgy-system

initializing operating system under '/mnt'...
guix system: error: build failed: path 
`/gnu/store/hill6gywff6p2c3h1zbc7h5xj0cr4yn2-grub.cfg' is not valid

I also trying reinstalling guix by deleting /gnu, /var/guix, and 
/var/log/guix (and also wiping the partition with rm)
and following again the documentation. Tried again the last command and 
got the same error again.

[config.scm (text/x-scheme, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
To: Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21068: guix system: error: build failed: path
 `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is not valid
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:37:01 +0200

Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com> skribis:

> tyrion ~$ sudo guix system init --no-grub /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt
> [sudo] password for tyrion:
> warning: failed to install locale: Invalid argument
> /gnu/store/q32xg8nmyjwrl5yc18hj7ay5h4rgzkgy-system
>
> initializing operating system under '/mnt'...
> guix system: error: build failed: path
> `/gnu/store/hill6gywff6p2c3h1zbc7h5xj0cr4yn2-grub.cfg' is not valid

This could be due to how you fiddled manually with /gnu/store and
/var/guix.  In general, one should never manually touch these
directories; instead, one should use ‘guix gc’ and similar commands.

> I also trying reinstalling guix by deleting /gnu, /var/guix, and
> /var/log/guix (and also wiping the partition with rm)

To be safe, could you start anew again, and report back?

  sudo rm -rf /gnu /var/guix
  # reinstall from binary tarball

>   (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda9")))

There’s a mistake here: it should be “/dev/sda” (say), not “/dev/sda9”
(the latter designates a partition, whereas the former designates a
disk.)  It doesn’t matter here since you passed --no-grub, but it would
otherwise lead to a ‘grub-install’ failure.

HTH,
Ludo’.

Message #11 received at 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21068: guix system: error: build failed: path
 `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is not valid
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 15:25:33 +0200

On 16/07/15 15:37, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> This could be due to how you fiddled manually with /gnu/store and
> /var/guix.  In general, one should never manually touch these
> directories; instead, one should use ‘guix gc’ and similar commands.
I did not fiddle with those directory. I only removed them to reinstall 
guix.
>> I also trying reinstalling guix by deleting /gnu, /var/guix, and
>> /var/log/guix (and also wiping the partition with rm)
> To be safe, could you start anew again, and report back?
>
>    sudo rm -rf /gnu /var/guix
>    # reinstall from binary tarball
I did it, for the third time. I always get the same error:

guix system: error: build failed: path 
`/gnu/store/kv217jzyir2wx0lwwxl7ljpwc4fzafpi-grub.cfg' is not valid

This time I used guix 0.8.3.

>>    (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda9")))
> There’s a mistake here: it should be “/dev/sda” (say), not “/dev/sda9”
> (the latter designates a partition, whereas the former designates a
> disk.)  It doesn’t matter here since you passed --no-grub, but it would
> otherwise lead to a ‘grub-install’ failure.
I tried removing that line, but if I do I get an error saying "missing 
field initializers (bootloader)".
So I also tried to specify a non existent disk (i.e. /dev/sdb), so it 
does not complain about the bootloader options, but I still get the 
"path 'grub.cfg' is not valid" error.

Message #14 received at 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21068: guix system: error: build failed: path
 `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is not valid
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 21:51:57 +0200

I also tried burning guixsd to an external usb stick and installing 
directly from that, but it failed with the same error.

Message #17 received at 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Alex Kost <alezost <at> gmail.com>
To: Germano Gabbianelli <tyrion.mx <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>, 21068 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21068: guix system: error: build failed: path
 `/gnu/store/..-grub.cfg' is not valid
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2015 11:18:49 +0300

Germano Gabbianelli (2015-07-26 16:25 +0300) wrote:

> On 16/07/15 15:37, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> This could be due to how you fiddled manually with /gnu/store and
>> /var/guix.  In general, one should never manually touch these
>> directories; instead, one should use ‘guix gc’ and similar commands.
> I did not fiddle with those directory. I only removed them to reinstall
> guix.
>>> I also trying reinstalling guix by deleting /gnu, /var/guix, and
>>> /var/log/guix (and also wiping the partition with rm)
>> To be safe, could you start anew again, and report back?
>>
>>    sudo rm -rf /gnu /var/guix
>>    # reinstall from binary tarball
> I did it, for the third time. I always get the same error:
>
> guix system: error: build failed: path
> `/gnu/store/kv217jzyir2wx0lwwxl7ljpwc4fzafpi-grub.cfg' is not valid
>
> This time I used guix 0.8.3.
>
>>>    (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda9")))
>> There’s a mistake here: it should be “/dev/sda” (say), not “/dev/sda9”
>> (the latter designates a partition, whereas the former designates a
>> disk.)  It doesn’t matter here since you passed --no-grub, but it would
>> otherwise lead to a ‘grub-install’ failure.
> I tried removing that line, but if I do I get an error saying "missing
> field initializers (bootloader)".
> So I also tried to specify a non existent disk (i.e. /dev/sdb), so it
> does not complain about the bootloader options, but I still get the
> "path 'grub.cfg' is not valid" error.

I have just built your config.scm successfully.  (I'm not suru but) it
looks like you either have a broken store or some stale files in the
partition you want to initialize the system to.

Could you try the following from your Lubuntu (without 'sudo'):

  guix pull
  guix system build --no-grub /path/to/your/config.scm

If the system has been built successfully (it definitely should), make
sure your partition is absolutely empty (!) and init the system there:

  sudo -E guix system init --no-grub /path/to/your/config.scm <mount-point>

-- 
Alex

Message #24 received at 21068-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
To: Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>
Cc: 21068-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, 21224-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21224: guix system init --no-grub doesn't work
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2015 23:54:23 +0100

Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org> skribis:

> I ran into the same problem while porting GuixSD to MIPS, before I had
> GRUB working.
>
> The problem here is that the method for copying the necessary store
> items to the target directory is to copy grub.cfg and its transitive
> closure, using (maybe-copy grub.cfg).
>
> However, if --no-grub is specified, then grub.cfg is not built.
>
> The preliminary approach I used successfully was to build and install
> grub.cfg even if --no-grub is specified, although 'grub-install' is not
> run in that case.  Here's the patch I used:
>
> diff --git a/guix/scripts/system.scm b/guix/scripts/system.scm
> index 45f5982..6ec1f29 100644
> --- a/guix/scripts/system.scm
> +++ b/guix/scripts/system.scm
> @@ -331,8 +331,10 @@ boot directly to the kernel or to the bootloader."
>                                               (if (eq? 'init action)
>                                                   '()
>                                                   (previous-grub-entries))))
> -       (drvs   -> (if (and grub? (memq action '(init reconfigure)))
> -                      (list sys grub grub.cfg)
> +       (drvs   -> (if (memq action '(init reconfigure))
> +                      (if grub?
> +                          (list sys grub.cfg grub)
> +                          (list sys grub.cfg))
>                        (list sys)))
>         (%         (maybe-build drvs #:dry-run? dry-run?
>                                 #:use-substitutes? use-substitutes?)))

Applied in a704361, thanks!

Ludo’.

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