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#1 2011-03-11 22:52:35

seatdistrict
Member
Registered: 2010-11-08
Posts: 11

Bootloader errors during install on Macbook 7,1

I had Arch up and running on my Macbook 7,1 with / and /home partitions, and decided that I wanted to make /home larger. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to just resize my /home and OS X partitions, so I backed up and wiped Arch off my disk entirely, with the intention to reinstall fresh and copy my stuff back over. When I go through the standard /arch/setup installation process, however, everything works fine until I get to the bootloader section. I get an error with both grub and grub2. Here's a more in-depth walkthrough of the process I'm using:

--note: I'm using rEFIt, and plan to dual boot OS X 10.6 and Arch, and maybe another distro to play with--

1. Resize OS X partition in Disk Utility (mac app) and add three partitions for Arch as FAT32 (8gb for root, 24gb for home, 1gb for swap)
2. reboot and sync partition table with rEFIt
3. Boot from Archboot 2010.10-1 iso live cd
4. go through normal /arch/setup
5. at 'prepare hard drive' section, I skip to 'set filesystem mountpoints' and mount / and /home on the respective partitions with ext4 filesystems
6. at 'install bootloader' section, I choose grub, and choose to install it on /dev/sda3 (which I've set to /)

this results in an error message which directs me to /dev/tty7, which, in turn tells me that grub doesn't recognize the filesystems of any of my partitions and therefore cannot mount /dev/sda3.

Variations:
I've been through this process at least 8 times now, and have tried all of the following (from various solutions I've found searching google and the forums and just making stuff up):

using grub2 instead of grub (results in a different error, which suggests that I chroot /tmp/install and install it manually, which I tried, but it was a bit over my head)
using a separate /boot partition (tried this with ext2 and ext3)
installing grub to /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda3
using parted during the /arch/setup install process to make the partitions and filesystems (it doesn't like being used for anything other than partitions, though)
using gparted on an ubuntu live cd to make the partitions as ext4 before trying the arch installation
no swap partition (this is how I had it set up originally, but I thought I'd include one in case other distros I wanted to test out were less understanding)
I even tried just copying the system files from my backup to /tmp/install during the installation, but that (of course) resulted in different IDs for the partitions, among other things.


I've really enjoyed using Arch, and I can't wait to have it back up and running again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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#2 2011-03-12 07:58:55

tpowa
Developer
From: Lauingen , Germany
Registered: 2004-04-05
Posts: 2,322

Re: Bootloader errors during install on Macbook 7,1

Please use latest archboot iso, which includes full grub2 efi support out of the box.

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#3 2011-03-12 14:42:45

seatdistrict
Member
Registered: 2010-11-08
Posts: 11

Re: Bootloader errors during install on Macbook 7,1

Alright, I've tried using the most recent archboot (2011.02-2) a couple times. I selected GRUB2 x86_64 EFI. It asked me whether or not I wanted to convert my existing MBR to GPT. When I say no, it says installation was successful, when I say yes, it drops me into parted, so I just quit. My GPT should be fine as is.
My issue is that now, in rEFIt, I only get OS X and Legacy OS options. Legacy just freezes my computer. The legacy option has been there since I last tried to install, though I've tried to get rid of it a few different ways.

Should I choose a different bootloader option? Can I use the cd to boot in and fix it manually? if possible, I'd like to keep using rEFIt.

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#4 2011-03-14 16:46:19

seatdistrict
Member
Registered: 2010-11-08
Posts: 11

Re: Bootloader errors during install on Macbook 7,1

*bump*

On a side note, I tried to install Debian as well the other day, but that failed with bootloader issues as well. I'll give it another shot and play with the different options on the archboot cd. In the meantime, any recommendations would be appreciated, especially if someone could tell me if it's possible to skip to the bootloader part of the installation instead of going through the entire process every time.

thanks,

sd

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#5 2011-03-14 17:12:15

skodabenz
Banned
From: Tamilnadu, India
Registered: 2010-04-11
Posts: 382

Re: Bootloader errors during install on Macbook 7,1

Found this page by the author of GPT fdisk (aka gdisk) - http://www.rodsbooks.com/ubuntu-efi/index.html . This might help.


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

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