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On Monday, 14 September 2020 09:38:10 BST antlists wrote: |
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> On 14/09/2020 08:48, Peter Humphrey wrote: |
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> > Just before this started, I booted Win-10 on /dev/sdb and ran its update |
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> > process. I don't use it for anything at the moment, just keeping it up to |
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> > date in case I ever do. I do this most weeks, but is it possible that |
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> > Win-10 tampered in some way that it hasn't before? I'm seeing these |
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> > errors on/dev/ sda (which does have an NTFS partition) and /dev/nvme0n1 |
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> > (which does not), but not on /dev/sdb. |
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> |
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> I know Windows has hidden partitions and things, but it shouldn't be |
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> tampering with the partition table. What sector does sda1 start on? It |
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> should be something like 2048. I don't play with that enough to really |
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> know what's going on, but if that number is single digits then that |
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> could be the problem ... |
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Well, I bit the bullet and started again with a new GPT partition table. I |
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made the partitions the same sizes as before, but this time when I ran |
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mkfs.ext4 on them, I wasn't told that a file system already existed with the |
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same name. Something had evidently been changed. |
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Then followed three days of trying to get the system to boot. Even though the |
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root and /boot partitions were exactly as before and I gave the same commands |
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to efibootmgr and bootctl, either the BIOS couldn't find a kernel, or it did but |
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then the kernel couldn't find a file system. |
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In the end I pointed efibootmgr at the systemd directory and it then started. |
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That was definitely a new arrangement. |
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The Gentoo wiki could do with some expert revision; it doesn't explain any of |
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the structure, so when its commands don't return the expected result, I'm left |
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with guesswork. For example, I've only recently realised that bootctl is |
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needed if you want a boot menu of kernels (not counting grub-2, which I would |
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only install under duress). |
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At the end of all this, I'm left wondering what happened to the original |
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system. (Cosmic-ray strike?) I'm not convinced that Win-10 would go round |
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seeding something into all those partitions that could exist but don't, on the |
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disks it wasn't installed on. And why did mkfs not recognise the old file |
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systems? |
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I don't like mysteries. |
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-- |
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Regards, |
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Peter. |
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