Re: transferring boot
Eben King composed on 2025-08-02 16:25 (UTC-0400):
> I have made these partitions:
> Device Start End Sectors Size Type
> /dev/sda1 2048 1953792 1951745 953M Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda2 1955840 6150144 4194305 2G Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda3 6152192 48095232 41943041 20G Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda4 48097280 48195583 98304 48M Linux swap
> /dev/sda5 48195584 67069952 18874369 9G Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda6 67072000 69023744 1951745 953M BIOS boot
/dev/sda6 is approximately 953X as large as it has any need to be. A BIOS boot on
a GPT disk takes the place of an MBR disk's MBR track, so only needs roughly 60 or
fewer sectors.
# parted -l
Model: ATA KINGSTON RBU-SNS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 263MB 262MB k256p01 DOS C: reservation msftdata 250 MiB
2 263MB 599MB 336MB k256p02 reserved for ESP msftdata 320 MiB
3 599MB 1018MB 419MB ext2 k256p03 res legacy_boot 400 MiB
4 1018MB 1019MB 1049kB k256p04 BIOS Boot (noEFI) bios_grub 1 MiB
5 1019MB 1020MB 1049kB k256p05 DOS dummy msftdata 1 MiB
6 1020MB 1285MB 264MB k256p06 DOS E: reservation msftdata 252 MiB
7 1285MB 4402MB 3117MB linux-swap(v1) k256p07 swapper swap 2973 MiB
8 4402MB 11.1GB 6711MB ext4 k256p08 suse 131 6400 MiB
9 11.1GB 15.7GB 4614MB ext4 k256p09 /home 4400 MiB
10 15.7GB 22.4GB 6711MB ext4 k256p10 suse 423 6400 MiB
...
13 47.6GB 54.3GB 6711MB ext4 k256p13 trixie 6400 MiB
...
24 121GB 128GB 6711MB ext4 k256p24 bookworm 6400 MiB
25 128GB 135GB 6711MB ext4 k256p25 bullseye 6400 MiB
...
42 250GB 256GB 5872MB ext4 k256 mageia 4 6400 MiB
> Grub installs without error on that drive, but drops me into grub's
> command line when I boot from it. Then when I do
Installs how exactly? Where?
> boot (hd0,gptN)
> for N in 1 or 2 (/boot or /root) it tells me that I have to pick a
> kernel first.
That happens when Grub hasn't been correctly installed and/or configured.
> I have these files:
> eben@cerberus:~$ sudo mount -o ro /dev/sda2 /mnt/temp
> eben@cerberus:~$ sudo mount -o ro /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp/boot
> eben@cerberus:~$ ls -l /mnt/temp/vm*
> 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 May 25 13:01 /mnt/temp/vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64
> 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 May 25 13:01 /mnt/temp/vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-35-amd64
> eben@cerberus:~$ ls -l /mnt/temp/boot/v*
> 7.9M -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.9M Apr 10 15:32 /mnt/temp/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-33-amd64
> 7.9M -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.9M Apr 25 15:51 /mnt/temp/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-34-amd64
> 7.9M -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.9M May 7 11:10 /mnt/temp/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-35-amd64
> 7.9M -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.9M May 22 14:32 /mnt/temp/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64
# ls -rtgG initrd.* | egrep -v 'cur|prv' && ls -rtgG vmlinuz-* | egrep -v 'cur|prv'
-rw-r--r-- 1 10720523 May 27 2024 initrd.img-6.1.0-21-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 10200492 Jul 3 2024 initrd.img-6.1.0-22-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 2 10729999 Nov 19 2024 initrd.img-6.1.0-27-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 9325720 Mar 23 15:45 initrd.img-6.1.0-32-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 9325720 Mar 23 15:47 initrd.img-6.1.0-25-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 9324144 Apr 28 15:20 initrd.img-6.1.0-34-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 9326878 Aug 2 17:31 initrd.img-6.1.0-37-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8169408 May 3 2024 vmlinuz-6.1.0-21-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8173504 Jun 20 2024 vmlinuz-6.1.0-22-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8177600 Aug 26 2024 vmlinuz-6.1.0-25-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8189888 Nov 1 2024 vmlinuz-6.1.0-27-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8193984 Mar 6 01:21 vmlinuz-6.1.0-32-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8193984 Apr 25 15:51 vmlinuz-6.1.0-34-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 8193984 May 22 14:32 vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64
#
> What does it want from me?
Perhaps show us /mnt/tmp/boot/grub/grub.cfg using pastebinit?
> The HD (currently sdc) boots fine. The BIOS (or whatever) doesn't offer
> it as a boot device, but I can do F12 at POST = "select boot device",
> pick it, and it works.
When was the machine new? What is its BIOS date? Is a BIOS update available?
--
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based on faith, not based on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
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