Re: Problem with NON-STANDARD install
On Mon 01 Aug 2016 at 13:06:16 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 8/1/2016 12:01 PM, David Wright wrote:
> >On Mon 01 Aug 2016 at 10:37:28 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> >>*CAVEAT LECTOR*
> >>I _KNOW_ I'm doing an *ATYPICAL* install.
> >>I *REQUIRE* Grub to be its own partition.
> >>The Debian 8.4 installer at least recognizes that some users would
> >>desire Grub to be in its own partition.
> >>
> >>"Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"
> >>[https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/] effectively ignores
> >>the issue.
> >>
> >>6.3.6.2. Install the Grub Boot Loader on a Hard Disk says only:
> >>...By default, grub will be installed into the Master Boot Record
> >>(MBR), where it will take over complete control of the boot process.
> >>If you prefer, you can install it elsewhere. See the grub manual for
> >>complete information. ...
> >>
> >>It does not even give a link for "grub manual" [e.g.
> >>http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html] which says in
> >>Section 3.4 "...or the core image can be installed in a file system
> >>and a list of the blocks that make it up can be stored in the first
> >>sector of that partition."
> >>
> >>I assumed that as the installer explicitly gave the option it would
> >>handle the details. It apparently did not.
> >>
> >>After install,
> >
> >If this was a non-standard install, then "After install" on its own
> >doesn't mean much.
>
> I meant after the Installer had asked me all its questions and I
> gave go ahead to complete install.
So which partitions did you ask it to create filesystems on, and what
were the mount points?
> The only strangeness should have been where grub was installed.
> I emphasized the atypical nature because back in Squeeze days here
> was much "Don't do that" concerning putting grub in its own
> partition. When the installer APPEARED to offer me a desirable
> option, I chose it. Also I've lost the link to the instructions I
> had used then. Not sure if they would match the current version of
> Grub in any case.
>
> > What did you install where? What's in the MBR
> >of the disk you installed on? (What the disk was used for previously
> >might be important here.)
>
> I used GPARTED Live to delete all existing partitions.
> I then created a Ext2 partition at the beginning of the drive and
> flagged it as bootable. [This is partition I reserved for grub].
> The remainder of drive was set up as extended partition.
> Created a 3 GB Linux Swap at the end of the extended partition.
> Created a 10 GB partition at the beginning of the extended partition
> for this install of Debian.
>
> > What did you write in your "grub partition"?
>
> Me nothing ;) I assumed that when the installer asked me where to
> manually place grub it would do so. I had followed the installer
> formatting examples saying /dev/sda1 .
See above. I don't know what you mean by "installer formatting
examples".
> >>I am dumped into GRUB's rescue mode
> >>"set" responds
> >>prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
> >>root=hd0,msdos1
Well, it would appear to me that grub was probably installed in the
MBR by a formerly existing OS that had /boot as part of / and that
was mounted from the first partition, hence the prefix...
> >>"ls" responds
> >>(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)
...and those are your newly created partitions.
There's probably another copy of grub at the start of the first
partition which you just wrote during the installation and is
being ignored by the one in the MBR as it doesn't know it's there.
You could probably confirm all this (or otherwise) by running
bootinfoscript.
> If I'm successful that will change.
> My goal is to learn enough about *nix too have the detail control of
> Slackware or "Linux from Scratch" with the advantages of Debian
> standard repositories.
Back to your reading then,
Cheers,
David.
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