[SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

drostin77 · 2009-12-01 08:41:35

I had Ubuntu dual booting with Mac OS X via grub2 on a GPT drive well. That worked fine except that it was Ubuntu and while I love Ubuntu for many reasons, I do not love Ubuntu for productive development (apt...headers...name mangling...ok I'm not going to rant).

I installed arch via live-usb net install like this:

Boot of live usb
Run parted
--Delete Ubuntu partition
--Make a 32MB ext2 partition (#4)
--Make a 6GB swap partition (#5)
--Make a 15GB ext4 partition (#6) (wasnt sure if ext4 was ok for root but... i just went for it!)
--Make a 250GB ext4 partition (#7)
Run arch setup
--In the choose blocks/config er whatever section I set the partitions as follows:
----4 -> /boot
----6 -> /
----7 -> /home

Install packages
Configure
--SKIP bootloader
Exit setup

Run the following:

$ mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
$ chroot /mnt bash
$ # dhcpcd and stuff to get online
$ pacman -Sy grub2
$ # Edit my grub.cfg (basically just copied the ubuntu one except replaced ubuntu's entry with arch's entry)
$ reboot

Get everyone's favorite message: Verifying dmi pool data...

Reboot into the archlinux live usb and try the following

$ parted
$ set 1 boot off
$ set 4 boot on
$ quit
$ reboot

Back to: Verifying dmi pool data...

While I'm not certain that Ubuntu wasn't doing something automagically to make gpt work smoothly for me this seems to my (not-very-knowledgeable) self like a reasonable approach, and thus my theory is that somehow the wrong partition is being attempted to be booted by my bios. If it were at least trying to run the partition with grub I would suspect some sort of error message, not just hanging at "Verifying dmi pool data..." This theory has made me realize that while I thought I sort of understood the bios->bootload hand off I, embarrassingly enough, have no idea how the boot partition is determined. I think the bios just hands off to the HD, and the HD chooses which boot partition, but maybe the BIOS goes straight to a given partition? Yup, no idea, hahah.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. While I do of course have everything backed up the mac os x partition is 800GB and is using ~700, so restoring it would not only be a pain, but also potentially unreliable so I would much prefer advice that does not involve deleting/overwriting/reinstalling os x.

Reinstalling Arch is no biggie (after all I've never booted successfully into this install;p).

Last edited by drostin77 (2009-12-04 12:50:21)

JuseBox · 2009-12-01 13:35:53

I am going to assume that you assigned your

/boot --> 32 MB ext2
/ --> 15GB ext4
/home --> 250 GB ext4

Also when you install step by step it will reinstall grub for you and ask you where you want it and all that. Did you read the arch linux beginners guide?

Gen2ly · 2009-12-01 15:10:29

Why GRUB2? Grub2 is still a bit experimental, probably have better luck with regular grub.

pointone · 2009-12-01 18:44:47

In your post, I don't see where you ran "grub-install". Just installing the GRUB package does not install a "bootloader", per se.

I'd recommend reading the GRUB2 wiki article carefully, or as Gen2ly says, use GRUB "legacy".

drostin77 · 2009-12-02 00:44:19

Why GRUB2? Grub2 is still a bit experimental, probably have better luck with regular grub.

I had read that regular grub did not play nice with GPT, and that in fact installing it may corrupt the partition table so I did not try it. If this information is incorrect I would love to use it to at least get my system up and running, let me know.

In your post, I don't see where you ran "grub-install". Just installing the GRUB package does not install a "bootloader", per se.
I'd recommend reading the GRUB2 wiki article carefully, or as Gen2ly says, use GRUB "legacy".

Thanks! Ya... I did read that wiki, uh forgot to updated post when I tried grub install but: grub-install hangs when run after chrooting and nothing happens. I swapped to another virtual terminal and checked out the process, it was doing nothing. So...
Ubuntu 9.10 uses grub2, so I booted an ubuntu 9.10 live usb, mounted my /boot partition (sda4) to /mnt/boot ran

$ grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

Rebooting now got me past "Verifying dmi pool data"

The grub menu was all messed up (only 1 option though I had 5 entries), and booting informed me that I need to load the kernel first, but I suspect this may just be a problem in my grub.cfg. I had to head in to work though (Japan time) before I could poke around, but for now I'd say I'm no longer "stuck" (uh, maybe ;p). Thanks for all the help!

I'll be seeing if I can get my grub.cfg setup happily (or better yet set it up automagically from a live cd ) tonight. Will set this so [SOLVED] and explain if I can.

Gen2ly · 2009-12-02 07:37:14

Grub does work with GPT. That support got added when Apple shifted to intel processors (used it on my old macbook). But it looks like you almost got it almost figured out.

drostin77 · 2009-12-04 12:49:52

solved via my previous post. If I can only have 1 distro, I'll take arch, but the Ubuntu live cd has saved my ass a lot lately

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-01 08:41:35

[SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#2 2009-12-01 13:35:53

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#3 2009-12-01 15:10:29

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#4 2009-12-01 18:44:47

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#5 2009-12-02 00:44:19

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#6 2009-12-02 07:37:14

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

#7 2009-12-04 12:49:52

Re: [SOLVED] Telling my BIOS/HD which partition to boot (GPT)

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