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On 06/29/2012 05:04 PM, Mike Gilbert wrote: |
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> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Richard Yao <ryao@g.o> wrote: |
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>> On 06/29/2012 03:04 PM, Mike Gilbert wrote: |
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>>> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote: |
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>>>> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Richard Yao <ryao@g.o> wrote: |
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>>>>> GRUB2 does away with the conventional stage files. It also wants a |
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>>>>> special BIOS Boot Partition in order to function. That is where it |
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>>>>> stores the equivalent of the stage2 bootcode. That is similar to |
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>>>>> FreeBSD's bootloader. |
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>>>> |
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>>>> Now, that should make for a fun migration! Fortunately I do have a |
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>>>> separate boot already, and I guess I can be daring and overwrite it in |
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>>>> place and trust in grub2 to still find the kernel elsewhere. |
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>>>> |
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>>>> Those without a separate boot and without any free space are likely to |
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>>>> find this to be painful. Resizing partitions isn't exactly |
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>>>> risk-free... |
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>>>> |
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>>>> Rich |
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>>>> |
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>>> |
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>>> I think Richard is incorrect here; grub2 can live on any filesystem, |
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>>> so long as some combination of modules can access it. |
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>>> |
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>> |
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>> Do you know what function the BIOS Boot Partion serves? It is necessary |
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>> when using GRUB2's ZFS support. I was under the impression that it |
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>> stored boot code. |
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>> |
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> |
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> Based on a Google search I think "BIOS Boot Partition" is a GPT thing. |
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> Not relevent if you have an MBR partition table. |
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> |
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|
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This is correct. I had forgotten that I switched to GPT on my systems |
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because ZFS partitions drives using GPT by default. Allowing people to |
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specify the partitioning without requiring them to do it manually is on |
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my to do list. |
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|
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However, those who wish to use GPT on their systems will need a BIOS |
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Boot Partition to store the boot code. That will not apply to older |
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systems that are switching to GRUB2 unless they also change their |
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partition tables. |