[solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

banshee28 · 2012-09-20 02:52:34

I have been running my previous arch install for years with very little problems. Recently with the /usr/lib issues and grub2 updates I had a few issues and decided this would be a good time to rebuild, and decided I would try btrfs, and add some ssd tweaks, etc.

So using the new scripted install process. Did the manual partitioning,:
Booting to arch boot CD and using gdisk .... I show....
2M EF02 BIOS boot partition (This was new to me but i seen it in the docs for grub-bios)
100M boot partition (normal boot partition I though)
40G /
var and home partitions.
ALL using btrf except for EF02 and /boot is ext4 i think

Maybe this is part of the problem, but not sure what else could be. I thought I followed the docs pretty good, but something is broke.

When I boot the new install, it goes shows loading operating system ....

Then shows: GRUB _

But its froxze and cant type anything. ctl-at-del works. What is missing??

Last edited by banshee28 (2012-09-22 12:53:25)

hunterthomson · 2012-09-20 09:43:39

So you are BIOS booting, using GPT instead of the old MBR system, and GRUB2.

The special partition for MBR and grub to be installed to dose not have a filesystem installed as it should not, correct?

The btrfs GRUB2 module is specified in the grub.cfg to be loaded, as well as ext2 as they should, correct?

I'd boot back into the Live Arch install enviorment and try reinstalling grub2

Last edited by hunterthomson (2012-09-20 09:47:47)

banshee28 · 2012-09-21 01:30:08

hunterthomson wrote:

So you are BIOS booting, using GPT instead of the old MBR system, and GRUB2.
The special partition for MBR and grub to be installed to dose not have a filesystem installed as it should not, correct?
The btrfs GRUB2 module is specified in the grub.cfg to be loaded, as well as ext2 as they should, correct?
I'd boot back into the Live Arch install enviorment and try reinstalling grub2

Yes, the special partion does not have a "normal FS" on it but is setup EF02, then the boot partition (/boot) I setup ext4 (in case there was a compatibility issue with btrfs), then the rest was btrfs. I am second guessing now whether btrfs is worth it or causing any issues here? I guess I can try to go back to the live CD like you suggest and reinatlling grub2, just not sure what I need to do different.

hunterthomson · 2012-09-21 04:47:39

Okay,

btrfs should be no problem. I did even have it as my / Root filesystem before.. hum ya, and I did not need to do any fancy with gurb.... I bet their was just some small step that was missed, or got messed up when installing grub. I bet if you just go through the grub install and building the kernel & initrd again it will work.

You could try installing with all ext4, simply to trouble shoot. Then if it all works, you can make a .tar of your whole / filesystem. Then reformat to btrfs and unpack the .tar on it..... or really you can just convert the ext4 to btrfs in-place.

(start my rant)
I too am extremely interested in btrfs, and would love to use it, and have even done so before. However, I just don't quite trust it yet. It still needs some work on the fsck to repair file-system damage, but last I heard it dose support fixing some file-system damage types now, and there is a tool to mount a broken file-system read-only, so you can pull off the files.... BUT, I still don't quite trust it, also I know for a fact ext4 is writing data to my SSD the optimal way. The one thing that I really want from btrfs is Snapshots, however I just discovered how amazing LVM is LVM dose the Copy-on-Write Mount-able & Fork-able Snapshots. It will also do live resisting, block-level soft RAID, live adding of disks... the list goes on and on. So, I am vary happy with ext4 + LVM2, and am no longer really longing for btrfs. Ext4 + LVM2 is a time tested and stable solution.

DSpider · 2012-09-21 05:41:30

You didn't use something like "/dev/sda1" or "/dev/sda2" when installing GRUB, did you?

Or did you install to /dev/sdb, thinking that sdb is the second partition?

Last edited by DSpider (2012-09-21 05:42:54)

banshee28 · 2012-09-21 21:28:31

@ Hunter thanks for the info. I too am not 100% confident with btrfs yet but thought I would try it this time. I can always convert later like you say so I may just reinstall using ext4. However I do think its one step thats off, esp with grub install.

I reinstalled last night doing pretty much the same thing, and this time it went to a full grub rescue> prompt. I did a 'set' and manually ran these commands thinking this is how it should be with my single ssd HD.

Now a 'set' at the rescue prompt shows the same:

prefix=(hd0,gpt3)/boot/grub
root=hd0,gpt3

It fails to boot with this error:
Welcome to GRUB!
error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc-normal.mod' not found

@ DSpider..... I think i installed grub to /boot which was /dev/sda2 and mounted to /mnt/boot when I was in the live CD.

Last edited by banshee28 (2012-09-21 21:55:10)

DSpider · 2012-09-22 05:48:05

Just to be clear, you need to install to /dev/sda, not /dev/sda2.

- Mount the root partition to /mnt.
- Mount the separate boot partition to /mnt/boot (if you have one).
- Run 'arch-chroot /mnt' and continue with the instructions from the Beginners' Guide (for BIOS motherboards): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

Last edited by DSpider (2012-09-22 05:48:26)

banshee28 · 2012-09-22 12:52:22

DSpider wrote:

Just to be clear, you need to install to /dev/sda, not /dev/sda2.
- Mount the root partition to /mnt.
- Mount the separate boot partition to /mnt/boot (if you have one).
- Run 'arch-chroot /mnt' and continue with the instructions from the Beginners' Guide (for BIOS motherboards): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

Its working!!!!

Basically I installed grub-bios but never really configured GRUB properly. I also did not create a separate /boot (ext4) partition this time and only used the 2MB special partition and of course installed to /dev/sda. No longer trying btrfs, although that does not appear to have been the issue! Once I did all this and rebooted, everything worked fine.

I learned quite a bit more than I wanted to right now about grub, but hey thats why I am here.

Thanks for all the help, now on to the main configs...

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-20 02:52:34

[solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#2 2012-09-20 09:43:39

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#3 2012-09-21 01:30:08

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#4 2012-09-21 04:47:39

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#5 2012-09-21 05:41:30

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#6 2012-09-21 21:28:31

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#7 2012-09-22 05:48:05

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

#8 2012-09-22 12:52:22

Re: [solved] Install with btrfs, grub2-bios, system froze at GRUB _

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