[Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

jameh0 · 2014-03-13 21:34:34

I installed grub from the main repositories, added a "bios-grub" partition:

Partition number (1-5): 5
Partition GUID code: 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649 (BIOS boot partition)
Partition unique GUID: 51E567AA-A64B-46F9-821C-BD3559EBDFA4
First sector: 976771072 (at 465.8 GiB)
Last sector: 976773119 (at 465.8 GiB)
Partition size: 2048 sectors (1024.0 KiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: ''

Then, as per the wiki instructions, I ran

# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sda
... "No errors occured"
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This makes the following grub.cfg: http://hastebin.com/goqilufika

I have refind installed to my ESP, and added to my refind.conf to look for hdbios.

This seems to work, since on reboot, refind displays an new option "Boot Linux from Disk", but choosing that yields the message

... No bootable devices found

My partition scheme is as follows:

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Disk /dev/sda: 976773168 sectors, 465.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): F6D90DB9-9C1A-4301-9191-356C0C8DE04A
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 976773134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 21 sectors (10.5 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       205225983   97.7 GiB    AF00  Macintosh HD
   3       205225984       968581119   364.0 GiB   0700
   4       968581120       976771071   3.9 GiB     8200
   5       976771072       976773119   1024.0 KiB  EF02

Partition 3 is the Arch Linux root partition, while the Linux Kernel image is *stored* on partition 1 (and this partition mounted to /boot on boot).

Is there something obvious I'm missing?

Last edited by jameh0 (2014-03-14 05:13:09)

nomorewindows · 2014-03-13 21:49:07

Are you using BIOS or UEFI? Machintosh HD entry seems to be that you are using bootcamp? Have you marked a bootable partition for the gpt partition table?

Last edited by nomorewindows (2014-03-13 21:50:01)

jameh0 · 2014-03-13 21:51:23

@nomorewindows I have partition 1 (that is the 200 MiB FAT32 boot partition) marked with the flag "boot".

Edit: I am trying to boot with BIOS emulation.

Edit2: I don't actually even make it to GRUB. I don't think that was clear

Edit3: Also not clear, I am booted via EFISTUB when configuring GRUB

Last edited by jameh0 (2014-03-13 22:29:11)

nomorewindows · 2014-03-14 00:54:17

EFI should work directly with GPT, and shouldn't need BIOS emulation unless you are using something like bootcamp. There is also grub-efi, which is what you maybe needing. It says that you have protective MBR which should allow it to boot.

jameh0 · 2014-03-14 01:09:31

I haven't run Bootcamp, the OS X dual boot utility.
I want to boot into Arch Linux using a BIOS emulation mode, instead of booting with EFI.

This is what I want:
The EFI firmware loads refind, from which point I want to step into the emulated BIOS which runs GRUB core.img (embedded in /dev/sda5), which loads the kernel image (on /dev/sda1) passing the root filesystem partition to the kernel (root=/dev/sda3).

nomorewindows · 2014-03-14 01:21:32

I'm using BIOS/BIOS/GPT with protective MBR and syslinux. The grub and EFI I probably can't follow that part of it. I believe what you need is in the wiki. I do know that EFI gets sorta complex to do, and there's probably several threads already discussing how to do this.

cedeel · 2014-03-14 01:43:26

Just to be clear, you want to keep OS X around?

If so, you need to make a GPT/MBR "hybrid" partition table using your favorite partitioning tool. GPT fdisk can do this in advanced mode.
On the other hand if you do not care about OS X you can just get rid of the whole thing and partition your disk with the MBR scheme which will force your Mac into BIOS compatibility mode when booting.
If you're set on using GPT but do not want OS X you can install refind on your ESP.

jameh0 · 2014-03-14 04:26:03

@cedeel, I think that's what I must be missing - I'm reading about it here now. Yes, I want to keep OS X.

Also, the reason I'm trying to get emulated BIOS boot to work is specifically for compatibility with my Nvidia graphics card drivers.

Edit:

My "Protective MBR" layout according to GPT fdisk is:

Disk size is 976773168 sectors (465.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1    976773167   primary     0xEE

Which is exactly the definition of a Protective MBR given here

I will try to define the MBR partitions, as this is clearly something I need.

Edit2:
I used "GPT fdisk" to create a hybrid MBR according to instructions here

The resulting MBR layout is:

Disk size is 976773168 sectors (465.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1           39   primary     0xEE
   2      *             40       409639   primary     0xEF
   3             205225984    968581119   primary     0xEF
   4             968581120    976771071   primary     0x82

I then re-ran the GRUB commands:

# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sda
... "No errors occured"
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

And now it boots!
Thanks @cedeel for pointing out that what I was missing was a Hybrid MBR.
Thanks @nomorewindows for getting me to be more precise
Thanks Rod Smith @ http://www.rodsbooks.com

Last edited by jameh0 (2014-03-14 05:12:43)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-13 21:34:34

[Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#2 2014-03-13 21:49:07

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#3 2014-03-13 21:51:23

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#4 2014-03-14 00:54:17

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#5 2014-03-14 01:09:31

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#6 2014-03-14 01:21:32

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#7 2014-03-14 01:43:26

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

#8 2014-03-14 04:26:03

Re: [Solved] BIOS grub install on GPT disk "No bootable devices found"

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