This appears to be an upstream problem, but there is a workaround mentioned at https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=846317 which resolved the problem. (Maybe add an einfo message to the ebuild so users are at least alerted to the problem?) Reproducible with sys-boot/grub-2.00_p5107-r2 and sys-boot/grub-2.02_beta2 Steps to reproduce: 1. rm -rf /boot/grub /boot/grub2 2. grub2-install /dev/sda 3. grub2-mkconfig /boot/grub/grub.cfg 4. shutdown -r now Output: Welcome to grub! rescue> Type "insmod normal" Response: symbol 'grub_term_highlight_color' not found Best guess at what is happening: 1. the MBR of /dev/sda has an old version of grub2 2. grub2-install silently disregards the command line argument "/dev/sda", installs to /dev/sda1 instead (whichever partition is marked boot) 3. The old grub2 in the MBR loads and notices the problem when it tries to load normal.mod emerge --info: Portage 2.2.8-r1 (default/linux/amd64/13.0, gcc-4.7.3, glibc-2.19-r1, 3.12.6-gentoo x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-3.12.6-gentoo-x86_64-AMD_A10-6800K_APU_with_Radeon-tm-_HD_Graphics-with-gentoo-2.2 KiB Mem: 15784800 total, 15241612 free KiB Swap: 0 total, 0 free Timestamp of tree: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 01:00:01 +0000 ld GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.23.2 app-shells/bash: 4.2_p45 dev-java/java-config: 2.2.0 dev-lang/python: 2.7.7, 3.2.5-r6 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.12.2-r1 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.2 sys-apps/openrc: 0.12.4 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.6-r1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.69 sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6, 1.13.4 sys-devel/binutils: 2.23.2 sys-devel/gcc: 4.7.3-r1 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.7.3 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.2-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r4 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.13 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.19-r1 Repositories: gentoo var-lib-custom ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA dlj-1.1 PUEL AdobeFlash-10.3 Intel-SDP Oracle-BCLA-JavaSE google-talkplugin googleearth" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=k8 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php5.5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=k8 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync" FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org/" LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" MAKEOPTS="-j5 --load-average=11" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/custom" USE="acl amd64 berkdb bindist bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cxx dri fortran gdbm iconv ipv6 mmx modules multilib ncurses nls nptl openmp pam pcre readline session sse sse2 ssl tcpd unicode zlib" ABI_X86="64" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_default authn_file authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation proxy proxy_ajp proxy_connect proxy_http rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" GRUB_PLATFORMS="pc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="en" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php5-5" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7" QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS="x86_64" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby19 ruby20" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="radeon fglrx" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" USE_PYTHON="2.7" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, SYNC
I failed to specify exactly what I did to resolve the problem: 1. boot using a liveUSB 2. chroot to existing gentoo install 3. attempt to fix by downgrading to sys-boot/grub-2.00_p5107-r2 -- no difference 4. upgrade back to sys-boot/grub-2.02_beta2 -- no difference 5. dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda && grub2-install /dev/sda && grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg That resolved the problem.
It's probably too late now, but it would have been helpful if you had provided the output of grub2-install --debug. In any case, I have not run into this problem before. Seek support upstream please.
Ok, thanks.