Re: [bug #35354] Cloning GRUB2 1.99 makes clone not bootable

[Jake Thomas]

So, would it be optimal if the Grub dev team added a parameter to search, 
similar to the "--fs-uuid" parameter, but for the hard drive's unique 
identifier? Maybe a "--hd-uuid" parameter? So something like "--hd-uuid --set 
012345, msdos4" where the 012345 is the id of the whole drive, and the msdos4 
is the fourth partition according to the MBR partition table (or should be able 
to do "gpt4" if GPT).

Well, for now you can use tune2fs to tweak the UUID after imaging. If you 
somehow have imaging scripted, since tune2fs is a CLI program, you could add it 
to end of the script.

Unfortunately, you would need to go back into the cloned drive after imaging 
and edit grub.cfg to match the uuids in the case you go with tune2fs. Even if 
they added a --hd-uuid parameter, you would still have to go back in and change 
the grub.cfg file after imaging (just partitions, not whole disk) to match the 
uuid of the hard drive. But again, this should be automatable.

Or... It would also be cool if the dev team added a feature to grub so that it 
holds which hard drive it booted from in a variable. Like a HOME_DRIVE variable 
or something. Then your config files could be based off HOME_DRIVE and you 
could use the same exact config file in all the cloned drives, hence no need 
for extra work after cloning.

Jake

Also, you say that the two disks have different serial numbers, yet you've 
cloned them after each-other. So you must be talking about something in the 
firmware of the hard drive? There is a 4-byte disk signature in the MBR. So if 
you only clone partitions, that would remain as a difference. And the GPT 
header has a uuid for the whole drive.

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