PVE host: what is /boot/grub/device.map trying to do?

[JBB]

I've got a weird problem with a PVE host machine that refuses to reboot without me having to explicitly choose the boot device from the BIOS.

Looking for clues on this I see /boot/grub/device.map contains the following. Does anyone know what this is trying to do?

(hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8​

The docs mention that it is still used "... for overriding when current environment is different from the one on boot"

Here's what we're using to boot with (/dev/sda2):

/etc/fstab
UUID=ce607f01-f44e-412f-aadc-347cd897bbb2 /boot ext3 defaults 0 1​

/etc/mtab
/dev/sda2 /boot ext3 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0​

But it seems the ID given in the device.map file isn't the one for the actual boot partition:

ls /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep 36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8
scsi-36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8 <<===== listed in device.map
scsi-36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8-part1
scsi-36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8-part2 <<==== should it be this instead? (2nd partition of /dev/sda)
scsi-36b083fe0e9dcfb001c496a3b125ab3d8-part3​

Should I try removing device.map?

J

proxmox-ve: 4.4-82 (running kernel: 4.4.35-1-pve)
pve-manager: 4.4-12 (running version: 4.4-12/e71b7a74)
pve-kernel-4.4.35-1-pve: 4.4.35-77

 

[manu]

The device map is here to map bios hard disks to Linux disks uuid (the configuration of the boot partition is doned in grub.cfg )

> I've got a weird problem with a PVE host machine that refuses to reboot without me having to explicitly choose the boot device from the BIOS.
why don't you set the correct boot device inside the BIOS ?

 

[JBB]

Thanks, but the boot process used to work fine. Only after a PVE update a couple of months ago did it start refusing to boot (it actually goes into a loop, rebooting after getting past the POST routine I think).

So it would be good to know why the device map is present at all. Is there a reason it's pointing at /dev/sda and not /dev/sda2?

 

[fabian]

Thanks, but the boot process used to work fine. Only after a PVE update a couple of months ago did it start refusing to boot (it actually goes into a loop, rebooting after getting past the POST routine I think).

So it would be good to know why the device map is present at all. Is there a reason it's pointing at /dev/sda and not /dev/sda2?

because the device map maps devices, not partitions, like manu said.

if you can boot by manually selecting a non-default drive in the bios boot menu, your bios boot configuration is wrong (either altogether, or just the priorities).

 

[JBB]

OK thanks. Super weird that the machine's firmware config might have changed for no apparent reason in that case.