Re: [gentoo-user] Removing or renaming old /boot/grub directory warning

[Dale]

Michael wrote:
> On Saturday, 5 February 2022 08:37:48 GMT Dale wrote:
>> Arve Barsnes wrote:
>>> On Sat, 5 Feb 2022 at 07:37, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>>>> Should I reinstall grub after removing the old directory so it puts
>>>> things where it needs to be or what?  Or does a new install have that
>>>> old directory too?  While at it, is there something that can give me
>>>> better options in cases like this or do I need to stop renaming stuff?
>>> For what it's worth, this machine is new enough to only ever having
>>> had grub2 on it, and the directory in /boot is still named /boot/grub
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Arve
>> I have a grub, old from original install, and grub2, that was added when
>> I switched to the new grub.  I would have thought the old directory was
>> no longer needed but it appears it is for some reason.
> You don't provide enough information about your /boot, fs layout, etc., so it
> is difficult to know why the new GRUB2 failed to work.  As a rule of thumb, if
> GRUB2 had worked before the likely problem is file corruption, or forgetting
> to run grub-mkconfig after you made and copied over your new kernel and initrd
> - it depends on what the message was when it failed to boot and what file it
> couldn't find.
>
> I'd run fsck on the /boot partition to make sure there is no fs corruption and
> hdparm on the disk would be advisable too.
>

It failed with a missing normal.mod file.  That file is in the old grub
directory.  Once I renamed the directory back to what grub expected, the
system loaded grub fine.  There's been other threads about kernel boot
problems and the one I recently built could be having one of those
problems.  I haven't looked into that.  I doubt there is any file system
problem.  The problem was me renaming a directory that grub still needs
files from.  There is likely a way around this but my post was to warn
others that renaming that directory could cause problems. 


>> I've reinstalled
>> using the grub-mkconfig command but have not reinstalled using the
>> grub-install command.  I'm tempted to rename the old directory, install
>> like I would from a fresh new install, MBR and all, then see if it
>> boots.  Thing is, having to use the rescue tools if it fails is a bit of
>> a pain.  Also, I need to let my hair regrow a bit.  ;-)
> Take a look at this page to make sure you don't remove some GRUB file needed
> for a boot:
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Migration
>
> There are other GRUB related pages in the wiki to help with configuring GRUB2.
>
> BTW, you don't need the old legacy GRUB as a fall back to boot your system.
> You can use a LiveCD/DVD/USB and you can configure your GRUB2 to boot this
> from your /boot, or some rescue partition on disk.  Of course, if GRUB or your
> /boot fs/partition is borked, then a LiveUSB is always handy.  ;-)


That's the page I followed way back when I switched.  It worked fine and
was nice to have it chainload which gives one a backup boot method. 

I don't have the old grub installed, just a directory that was installed
by the old grub but contains files that the new grub needs.  The file
and path it needs is this:  /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod  Why that
isn't installed in the new grub directory and told to look there for it,
I have no idea at the moment.  I may test it one day but don't feel the
desire to try it today. 

Dale

:-)  :-)