Arch Linux

rafdre

Member

From: Gdansk

Registered: 2013-09-21

Posts: 76

[SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

Hi all,

I am trying to install Archlinux on VirtualBox.
Everything goes fine until the point when I try to install GRUB.

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda

grub-install : error: will not proceed with blocklists

The structure of disk and details are visible here:
https://ibb.co/mAfK6Q

Basically I have two partitions only
/dev/sda1 - main
/dev/sda2 - swap

the first starts on 2048 which should be fine (from what I read here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=169124 )

in SYSTEM settings for this virtual machine I have disabled EFI.
partitions were created using gdisk

regards
Rafal

Last edited by rafdre (2017-04-22 14:11:11)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,277

Website

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

grub-install : error: will not proceed with blocklists

That is not the full error message, please do not crop command output when posting here.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

IIRC, the full error message explains the source of the problem.

You need to create a BIOS boot partition to house the non-UEFI GRUB bootloader on your GPT disk; select type "ef02" in gdisk.

However, the recommended approach for a non-UEFI system is to use a traditional "MBR-style" (msdos) partition table rather than the GUID type you have created.

To do this, run `sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdX` to clear the GPT then use `fdisk` to create an "ms-dos" type partition table instead (this is the default option with that program).

---

Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

rafdre

Member

From: Gdansk

Registered: 2013-09-21

Posts: 76

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

thanks a lot for quick answer

I have not posted anything else because of the following reason:
1) as I said this is virtual machine, so I cannot simply COPY& PASTE text. Therefore I provided a link to the screenshot
2) actually what I posted is the only ERROR I saw. The rest were WARNINGS. Here I provide more details:

grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embeding won't be possible.
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be intsalled in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged ..
grub-install : error: will not proceed with blocklists

I hope I copied it 1:1 (thats a challenge while manual copy is done)

what I did now is : I started again from scratch, but this time I used fdisk instead of gdisk.
I did basically what is described here
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html

It worked wonderful. I was able install GRUB without issues, but that's all I could accomplish so far :-(

Now - when I select entry in GRUB system does not start saying "no such device"  followed by UUID

Changing entry (command "e" in GRUB) from UUID to something like /dev/sda1 does not help.

My steps in installation process were quite simple:
1) define partitions
2) pacstrap /mnt base
3) genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

later CHROOT and installation of GRUB

have I missed something?
Why GRUB does not recognize hard disk device?

rafdre

Member

From: Gdansk

Registered: 2013-09-21

Posts: 76

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

I see the issue is not new for ARCHLINUX. I found this video on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LgdfoN7b2Q

I have checked and indeed the UUID in /etc/fstab is different than this fake one in grub.cfg file

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,277

Website

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

I see the issue is not new for ARCHLINUX.

No, the "fake" grub.cfg is included with the GRUB package to help screen out incompetent n00bs from the distribution — congratulations for passing the test and welcome to Arch

Also, please mark the thread [SOLVED]

---

Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

rafdre

Member

From: Gdansk

Registered: 2013-09-21

Posts: 76

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB installation fails - will not proceed with blocklists

I think 'welcome' is not the right word here :-) , but thanks.
I am using ArchLinux for quite some time. Right now I have debian/archlinux on one PC (brix) and archlinux on my small home server. I used to have archlinux together with SLES/windows on another laptop , but after nVidia stopped support for drivers (GeForce 360M) I decided to use there openSuse as 3rd system (I am using this laptop basically only with projector to watch movies). SUSE is the distro I used for quite long (still think its a good distro...especially for beginners)

Regarding the issue with GRUB & UUID: the video provides workaround but not good long term solution. They advise to use Ubuntu Live CD only because of gedit tool (they are not familiar with 'vi' :-) ? ). Advice from video is to manipulate grub.cfg

if you open grub.cfg it says clearly that file was generated.

I used better way than advised on that video. I simply regenerated the files using this command:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Lessons learned
1. When you install ArchLinux on VirtualBox is better to user fdisk (and not gdisk) to prepare a disk partitions
2. After GRUB installed - if you see errors like "error: no such device: ad4103fa ", then its good to try to generate new config file with 'grub-mkconfig'