Arch Linux

sultanoswing

Member

Registered: 2008-07-23

Posts: 314

Ext4 and GRUB - a heart flutter moment

I've just recently upgraded to Ext4 using the instructions from the wiki (thanks to the author!). Still using the stock GRUB, rather than GRUB 2.

I initially got the kernel panic as described in the wiki - no problem, booted to the Fallback (custom) kernel, and ran mkinitcpio and it booted up.

The problem came after the first hard reboot when GRUB loaded to the prompt rather than using menu.lst. No error messages, just:

grub>

Still not sure exactly how I solved it, but I booted from a Jaunty iso and ran the following (also from the Ext4 wiki):

# mkdir /mnt/arch
# mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt/arch
# mount -t proc proc /mnt/arch/proc
# mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/arch/sys
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/arch/dev

# chroot /mnt/arch /bin/bash

# mount -t ext4 /dev/sda2 /boot

# grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

...and she booted again and has done since. I'm assuming it was a problem with GRUB not being able to read the ext4 / partition, although I do have the latest updates for all, so I thought it should have had the patch to read ext4 (as it is doing now).

Last edited by sultanoswing (2009-04-22 09:38:01)

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6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Ext4 and GRUB - a heart flutter moment

Perhaps you haven't reinstalled GRUB to MBR after updating to the ext4-enabled version?

Last edited by lucke (2009-04-22 10:25:54)

sultanoswing

Member

Registered: 2008-07-23

Posts: 314

Re: Ext4 and GRUB - a heart flutter moment

Perhaps you haven't reinstalled GRUB to MBR after updating to the ext4-enabled version?

Just updating / converting '/' and '/home' to ext4 shouldn't have uninstalled GRUB, though. And as noted above, GRUB was still installed and running from the MBR, otherwise it wouldn't have even gotten to the grub prompt (without error).

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6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Ext4 and GRUB - a heart flutter moment

The thing is, you had the old GRUB in MBR, without ext4 support.

sultanoswing

Member

Registered: 2008-07-23

Posts: 314

Re: Ext4 and GRUB - a heart flutter moment

The thing is, you had the old GRUB in MBR, without ext4 support.

Ahhh. Good thinking!

...a trap for the unwary, to be sure!

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6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop