Arch Linux

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

a small question about installing grub

i konw it is may little foolish to ask this question, but the whole installing process bothered my for about a week in installing the grub.

i am a user chang my os from manjaro to arch, but stucked in installing grub.

so i want to figure out what is a proper process of installing grub, i installed manjaro agian and open the terminal try to install grub. It shows:

[max@max-a780l3b ~]$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda
Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible.
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists.  However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists.

where /dev/sda is the current disk of manjaro

run fdisk and parted like this

[max@max-a780l3b ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: CF500 256GB     
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: 53669DE6-36AC-4A10-B581-8F0356107D6D

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       4096 172738559 172734464  82.4G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda2  180000000 450000000 270000001 128.7G EFI System
/dev/sda3  450000896 500117503  50116608  23.9G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4  172738560 176529407   3790848   1.8G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

[max@max-a780l3b ~]$ sudo parted /dev/sda -l
Model: ATA CF500 256GB (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                  Flags
 1      2097kB  88.4GB  88.4GB  ntfs         Microsoft basic data  msftdata
 4      88.4GB  90.4GB  1941MB  ext4         Linux filesystem
 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp
 3      230GB   256GB   25.7GB

my motherboard only suppor BIOS and the partation table is GPT

so my questions is
1. what is wrong with my process? i think the grub-install will successfully installed grub on sda3 which size is 138GB shown is parted with Flags of boot, esp
2. i leant from chatgpt that there is no need for a specific partation for MBR, just run grub-install is fine. And grub will be installed in MBR, but it always follow the with the command  "sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg" where there is no partation mounted on the /boot dir

i am really confused, anyone cloud help me!?

Last edited by mexlink (2024-07-19 11:06:10)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,184

Re: a small question about installing grub

from the windows partitions: your system boots in uefi mode - so the line will be

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=<esp> --bootloader-id=grub [--boot-directory=<esp>]

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

Re: a small question about installing grub

from the windows partitions: your system boots in uefi mode - so the line will be

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=<esp> --bootloader-id=grub [--boot-directory=<esp>]

you mean my system suppor uefi?

Last edited by mexlink (2024-07-19 11:12:01)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,184

Re: a small question about installing grub

don't know - but why would one use a gpt disk and an esp on a legacy system which isn't able to boot from it?
on the other hand: pretty much all systems starting from early 2010s are uefi - if your hardware really is from pre-uefi times it's likely not a good candidate for arch - if you wantvto keep using it use more time-appropriate lime some old debian

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

Re: a small question about installing grub

don't know - but why would one use a gpt disk and an esp on a legacy system which isn't able to boot from it?
on the other hand: pretty much all systems starting from early 2010s are uefi - if your hardware really is from pre-uefi times it's likely not a good candidate for arch - if you wantvto keep using it use more time-appropriate lime some old debian

thanks a lot!

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,687

Re: a small question about installing grub

you mean my system suppor uefi?

Does cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size return anything?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: a small question about installing grub

 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp

The EFI system partition needs to be FAT-formatted unless your motherboard firmware can read ext4 filesystems, which is highly unlikely.

Also, 138GiB is far too big for an EFI system partition — even if you intend to mount the partition under /boot/ (which I would not recommend), 1GiB would be more than enough space; Windows usually only allocates ~100MiB.

i leant from chatgpt that there is no need for a specific partation for MBR

ChatGPT is full of shit. DIsks with a GUID partition table need an extra BIOS boot partition to hold GRUB's core.img for a non-UEFI system.

Please read https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 … 24-09775-5 before consulting ChatGPT again.

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

Re: a small question about installing grub

you mean my system suppor uefi?

Does cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size return anything?

[max@max-a780l3b ~]$ cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size
cat: /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size: No such file or directory

so i think my system is BIOS right?

Last edited by mexlink (2024-07-19 13:05:57)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: a small question about installing grub

Your system is currently booted in non-UEFI mode. This is indicated by the lack of a directory at /sys/firmware/efi/.

Does the firmware/BIOS have an option for "CSM" or "Legacy" booting? Disabling that should get it to boot in UEFI mode, if it exists.

Please describe in full any changes made to your disk when installing Arch.

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

Re: a small question about installing grub

 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp

The EFI system partition needs to be FAT-formatted unless your motherboard firmware can read ext4 filesystems, which is highly unlikely.

Also, 138GiB is far too big for an EFI system partition — even if you intend to mount the partition under /boot/ (which I would not recommend), 1GiB would be more than enough space; Windows usually only allocates ~100MiB.

i leant from chatgpt that there is no need for a specific partation for MBR

ChatGPT is full of shit. DIsks with a GUID partition table need an extra BIOS boot partition to hold GRUB's core.img for a non-UEFI system.

Please read https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 … 24-09775-5 before consulting ChatGPT again.

---

dude, it is hard to say what is happening:

i am running a Manjaro on

 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp

Last edited by mexlink (2024-07-19 13:19:10)

mexlink

Member

Registered: 2024-07-19

Posts: 6

Re: a small question about installing grub

 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp

The EFI system partition needs to be FAT-formatted unless your motherboard firmware can read ext4 filesystems, which is highly unlikely.

Also, 138GiB is far too big for an EFI system partition — even if you intend to mount the partition under /boot/ (which I would not recommend), 1GiB would be more than enough space; Windows usually only allocates ~100MiB.

i leant from chatgpt that there is no need for a specific partation for MBR

ChatGPT is full of shit. DIsks with a GUID partition table need an extra BIOS boot partition to hold GRUB's core.img for a non-UEFI system.

Please read https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 … 24-09775-5 before consulting ChatGPT again.

---

dude, it is hard to say what is happening:

http://121.37.30.197:5006/o/r/S3yi9GBKT8ehNragz7v5rW

i am running a Manjaro on

 2      92.2GB  230GB   138GB   ext4         root                  boot, esp

you said

Also, 138GiB is far too big for an EFI system partition

, but this is what the manjaro live install did on my conputer.

(by the way, in case of misunderstanding, installing a manjaro to my system is just want to check where did the grub installed and how did it work)

Last edited by mexlink (2024-07-19 13:23:00)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: a small question about installing grub

If the screenshot is taken from your Manjaro system then it shows /dev/sda2 to be the root partition for that system, the presence of the "boot, esp" flags in this case does not indicate it is being used as an EFI system partition.

this is what the manjaro live install did

Anyway, the presence of a GPT disk without a BIOS boot partition strongly suggests that the system is capable of booting in UEFI mode. You aren't answering all of my questions so I'm guessing here, feel free to help me out at any time, it will speed things up significantly.

You can install the non-UEFI version of GRUB by adding a BIOS boot partition (see the ArchWiki page for details) but if you insist on booting in non-UEFI mode it's probably better to replace the GUID table with a MS-DOS ("MBR") type instead.

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,184

Re: a small question about installing grub

how about this:
please name the model of your motherboard - it'll be way easier if we know what kind of platform we're eealibg with here