Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Florian Philipp <lists@×××××××××××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Disk migration boot loader not found
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:36:54
Message-Id: 503A1770.7070404@binarywings.net
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Disk migration boot loader not found by Florian Philipp
1 Am 25.08.2012 13:13, schrieb Florian Philipp:
2 > Hi list!
3 >
4 > I've just completed migrating my system from one hard disk to another.
5 > Although the new disk reports 512 byte blocks just like the old one, I
6 > thought it would be a good idea to re-align the partitions anyway. I've
7 > done it this way:
8 >
9 > 1. Create new partitions with gparted, at least as large as the old ones
10 > (rounded up to full MiB).
11 >
12 > 2. `dd` from the old to the new disk.
13 >
14 > 3. `resize2fs` to match the new sizes.
15 >
16 > 4. Install grub ("root (hd1,4); setup (hd1); setup (hd1,4)")
17 >
18 > 4. Swap disks and reboot.
19 >
20 > Unfortunately, the system failed to find the boot loader. There was no
21 > grub error. The disk was simply skipped, as if it was unformatted.
22 >
23 > The following steps were taken:
24 >
25 > 1. Verified that the `dd`ed partitions were sane.
26 >
27 > 2. Reinstalled grub from live-CD chroots several times.
28 >
29 > 3. Installed grub on a memory stick and booted from that.
30 >
31 > At this point, my partition table looked like this:
32 >
33 > Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
34 > 1 1049kB 316MB 315MB primary ntfs
35 > 2 316MB 750GB 750GB extended
36 > 5 317MB 424MB 107MB logical ext2 boot
37 > 6 425MB 22.4GB 22.0GB logical ext3
38 > 7 22.4GB 28.9GB 6441MB logical linux-swap(v1)
39 > 8 28.9GB 750GB 721GB logical
40 >
41 > The first logical partition was the boot partition. The first primary
42 > partition was a laptop-specific recovery partition. This setup was
43 > identical to the old one except that I removed a primary partition which
44 > resided /after/ the end of the extended partition.
45 >
46 > At this point, I've reformatted the first primary partition as ext2 and
47 > moved boot to this partition. This solved my problem.
48 >
49 > Now, my question is: Why does this work and the old solution doesn't?
50 > Why can't grub boot from a logical partition when it's MiB-aligned? I've
51 > changed nothing that should affect the MBR. Then why wasn't at least the
52 > stage 1 detected?
53 >
54 > Thanks in advance!
55 > Florian Philipp
56
57
58
59 Turns out, I was wrong in thinking the immediate problem was solved. In
60 fact, the system just booted of the memory stick without me noticing.
61 I've now finally solved by re-creating the boot partition without
62 MiB-alignment, just good old cfdisk. So, the working partition scheme
63 looks like this:
64
65 Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
66 1 32.3kB 316MB 316MB primary ext2 boot
67 2 316MB 750GB 750GB extended
68 5 317MB 424MB 107MB logical ext2
69 6 425MB 22.4GB 22.0GB logical ext3
70 7 22.4GB 28.9GB 6441MB logical linux-swap(v1)
71 8 28.9GB 750GB 721GB logical
72
73 Is there an explanation for this?
74
75 Regards,
76 Florian Philipp

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Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Disk migration boot loader not found Hinnerk van Bruinehsen <h.v.bruinehsen@×××××××××.de>