Arch Linux

duke11235

Member

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 221

Grub2 Bios Partition

I'm on a GPT formatted computer, and would like to make one of these. Anyone know the commands or necessities of doing so(partition type, tool for creating it, where get image to copy there)? It's essential for my planned setup.
Thanks

skodabenz

Banned

From: Tamilnadu, India

Registered: 2010-04-11

Posts: 382

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

Use GPT fdisk http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ ( in archlinux - pacman -S gdisk ) to create a small partition with a size of about 1 MB or so and change its type code to "ef02" in gdisk, OR create a partition without any filesystem in parted/gparted and set bios-grub flag on it.

I also have Archlinux x86_64 installed in a Pure GPT (no hybrid MBR) system. The only possible bootloader for you is GRUB2, neither grub-legacy nor syslinux will work with GPT disks ( although Fedora's patched grub-legacy will work with GPT disks). I am new to Archlinux but I have installed and used Fedora x64 versions in GPT disks for a long time and have been using grub2 for a year without any problems.

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My new forum user/nick name is "the.ridikulus.rat" .

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

Arch's grub legacy includes the gpt patch:
http://repos.archlinux.org/wsvn/package … peg=11908#
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/9864

Last edited by hokasch (2010-05-21 13:47:07)

testube_babies

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2007-06-26

Posts: 115

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

Arch's grub legacy includes the gpt patch:
http://repos.archlinux.org/wsvn/package … peg=11908#
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/9864

The GPT patch was later removed: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10639

Arch's grub-legacy doesn't support GPT.

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me@dA

testube_babies

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2007-06-26

Posts: 115

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

On another note, is there a way to avoid creating an extra partition for GRUB2?  Other distros don't seem to require it. 

I boot with Chameleon, which expects the first disk partition to be EFI-reserved and requires GRUB2 to be installed directly to the linux root partition.

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me@dA

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

The GPT patch was later removed: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10639

Arch's grub-legacy doesn't support GPT.

whatever happened in between - at the moment the gpt-patch is indeed applied. see the PKGBUILD from the repos I linked to above:

  # Add gpt support
  # http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/9864
  patch -Np1 -i ../grub-0.97-gpt.patch || return 1

Last edited by hokasch (2010-05-21 14:26:01)

scio

Member

From: Buffalo, NY

Registered: 2008-08-05

Posts: 366

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

GRUB2 does not require an extra partition if there is a small section (~64k if I remember correctly) of free space at the start of the disk.  In other words, don't start your first partition at block 1, or re-size it to start a few blocks in and you have no problem.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 60#p581760

testube_babies

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2007-06-26

Posts: 115

Re: Grub2 Bios Partition

The GPT patch was later removed: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10639

Arch's grub-legacy doesn't support GPT.

whatever happened in between - at the moment the gpt-patch is indeed applied. see the PKGBUILD from the repos I linked to above:

  # Add gpt support
  # http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/9864
  patch -Np1 -i ../grub-0.97-gpt.patch || return 1

I guess I'm wrong   Well, has anyone gotten grub-legacy to work on GPT?  I certainly can't.

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me@dA