Re: how to resume GRUB2 upgrade apparently blocked by /boot filesystem type=ext2?

[Simon Hobson]

Tom Roche <address@hidden> wrote:

> I have 3 questions based on 2 assumptions. The assumptions are
> 
> 1. I won't be able to boot my new kernel ...

Can you boot the old kernel ? If so then it makes life easier.

> 1. To what filesystem type should I update my {`/dev/sda3`, `/boot`}? I'm 
> guessing ext4; please let me know if there's a better option.

ext3 is a simple upgrade. It's something I've done in the past, it can be done 
in-place by turning on (IIRC) an option or two to add journaling.

> 2. What's the {easiest, most reliable, least disruptive} way to convert my 
> `/boot`'s filesystem, on Debian? `fstransform`[2]?

<does a quick search> Try this :
https://www.linux.com/community/blogs/127-personal/468774-convert-ext2-to-ext3-file-system

> 3. How to resume the GRUB2 install (after I upgrade `/boot`'s filesystem) on 
> Debian? Note that the GRUB2 *packages* (`grub-common`, `grub-pc`, 
> `grub-pc-bin`, `grub2-common`) are already installed per both `apt-get` and 
> `aptitude`. So is there a way to recreate the package-install post-setting-up 
> actions? Or should I remove the packages and reinstall them?

dpkg-reconfig should do it I think.
Assuming the package is installed, then (from memory) :

update-initrc -u -k all
update-grub
grub-install /dev/xxxx

should do it