Migrating to new disk ... syslinux issues

banshee28 · 2017-08-12 00:17:11

So, I have not had to mess with partitions, Grub, syslinux in years so not sure whats going on. I have my current Arch install with my SSD (/dev/sda), using syslinux. Everything works fine. I am trying to "backup/rsync" everything so I can 1) have a backup, and 2) convert over to my new Disk: NVME.

So I was following the Wiki for the backup and already created 3 physical partitions just like my current setup. I recently made the first partition (/) bootable, but not sure if I needed to do that.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … ble_backup

According to the Wiki, all I need to do regarding the Bootloader is use the current entry and modify for the new disk (/dev/nvme0n1). I dont have GRUB installed on this machine. I modified the syslinux.cfg file on the new disk:

LABEL arch
	MENU LABEL Arch Linux
	LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
	APPEND root=/dev/nvme0n1p1 ro
	INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

I am pretty sure my BIOS supports booting to the NVME as it shows up in the boot list in the BIOS menu. When I try to select this disk, the screen disappears and 5 seconds later returns. So I think its simply trying to boot to it but cant find an OS? Or would it at least drop down to some other menu at that point?

Current fdisk:

 Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2fde28b2

Device         Boot     Start        End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 *         2048  104859647 104857600   50G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p2      104859648  136316927  31457280   15G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p3      136316928 1000215215 863898288  412G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1F71A577-3763-49DF-AD48-E6E8B93D6F8F

Device        Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1      2048  62920703  62918656   30G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda2  62920704  83892223  20971520   10G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4  83892224 234441614 150549391 71.8G Linux filesystem

Any suggestions?

Last edited by banshee28 (2017-08-12 00:17:35)

drcouzelis · 2017-08-14 13:26:06

First of all, your motherboard DEFINITELY supports booting from NVME.

Did you partition the NVME drive using GPT? From the output, it looks like the SSD is "GPT" but the NVME is "DOS" (which is the old style). I'm not sure DOS style partitioning works with UEFI booting...

Actually, the more I study what you posted, the more confused I get... Are you planning to boot using UEFI (new style) or MBR / BIOS (old style)? What instructions did you follow?

For example, if you plan to boot using UEFI, you will need a small "/boot" partition that is formatted as FAT32... But if you plan to boot using MBR / BIOS, did you run "syslinux-install_update"? (WARNING: I have never used syslinux, but I know I had to run a similar "grub-install" command back when I used to use GRUB and the MBR).

If you are using MBR / BIOS boot, do you have "Legacy boot" enabled in your BIOS?

Last edited by drcouzelis (2017-08-14 13:26:41)

banshee28 · 2017-08-16 01:54:27

drcouzelis wrote:

First of all, your motherboard DEFINITELY supports booting from NVME.
Did you partition the NVME drive using GPT? From the output, it looks like the SSD is "GPT" but the NVME is "DOS" (which is the old style). I'm not sure DOS style partitioning works with UEFI booting...
Actually, the more I study what you posted, the more confused I get... Are you planning to boot using UEFI (new style) or MBR / BIOS (old style)? What instructions did you follow?
For example, if you plan to boot using UEFI, you will need a small "/boot" partition that is formatted as FAT32... But if you plan to boot using MBR / BIOS, did you run "syslinux-install_update"? (WARNING: I have never used syslinux, but I know I had to run a similar "grub-install" command back when I used to use GRUB and the MBR).
If you are using MBR / BIOS boot, do you have "Legacy boot" enabled in your BIOS?

Thanks......Well I made some progress... I think I am booting to the new disk now! However once it boots, I get the syslinux screen and error trying to load one of the .c32 files. So I then booted to the old disk, did the syslinux update

 # syslinux-install_update -i -a -m -c /mnt/root (Mounted NVME root partition)

.... That did not work, so I then tried the manual way:

 # mkdir /boot/syslinux
# cp /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux/                           ## copy ALL the *.c32 files from /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/, DO NOT SYMLINK
# extlinux --install /boot/syslinux/ 
# dd bs=440 count=1 if=/usr/lib/syslinux/bios/mbr.bin of=/dev/nvme0n1p1 
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
440 bytes copied, 0.00345755 s, 127 kB/s

but they both appeared to do the same. I will probably try to install GRUB on that partition next and see if that works.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-08-12 00:17:11

Migrating to new disk ... syslinux issues

#2 2017-08-14 13:26:06

Re: Migrating to new disk ... syslinux issues

#3 2017-08-16 01:54:27

Re: Migrating to new disk ... syslinux issues

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