Arch Linux

Veovis Muad'dib

Member

Registered: 2009-06-12

Posts: 43

GRUB can't write to MBR while installing, gives error 17

I'm installing on a Penryn (pre-unibody) Macbook Pro (4,1)

My hard drive is set up thusly:

GUID partition table
sda1: EFI blank partition
sda2: Windows 7
sda3: Snow Leopard
sda4: Arch

The Arch installer gets to installing GRUB no problem, but after I set my config file to allow booting of Windows, and save it, it tries then fails to write GRUB to the MBR.  I switch over to my log tty and it tells me that I have GRUB error 17, the one about being unable to mount the selected partition.  As far as I know, the MBR is not a partition, so I'm not sure what's going on.

A search of Google shows people normally having this problem on boot, not on install.  I can't find any help on install.

scio

Member

From: Buffalo, NY

Registered: 2008-08-05

Posts: 366

Re: GRUB can't write to MBR while installing, gives error 17

I would guess your /boot or / is not correct in menu.lst.  Double check your UUID / device entries.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: GRUB can't write to MBR while installing, gives error 17

Maybe the BIOS has an option set for virus protection to prevent wrting to the MBR (boot block)?

Also, can you install grub to sda4 and set that partition bootable?

Veovis Muad'dib

Member

Registered: 2009-06-12

Posts: 43

Re: GRUB can't write to MBR while installing, gives error 17

On this machine, I have EFI instead of BIOS.  There's a BIOS emulator, but I can't change any settings.

And since it's a Mac, and OSX doesn't look at the MBR ever, I doubt there's a setting to protect the MBR.

I'll look into the GUID idea in an hour or two.