On Saturday, 21 July 2018 19:47:25 BST Jack wrote: > On 2018.07.21 13:46, Mick wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > A slightly off-topic question arising from a different distro, which > > may > > replicate itself on Gentoo. > > > > I installed Mint-Linux, in a VM. The host PC MoBo has a legacy BIOS > > system. > > I used a GPT scheme to create partitions on the virtual disk. The > > first 1M on > > the virtual disk was left empty by gdisk. I thought GRUB can use > > this for its > > core image. Note, I did not create a partition in this 1MB empty > > space at the > > start of the disk. > > > > While running the Mint Installer I got a warning from its partition > > manager > > telling me I had not specified a BIOS_grub partition and the > > installation may > > fail. I ignored the warning and continued with the installation, > > which > > completed successfully. > > > > A few weeks later I ran an update which among other packages updated > > grub2- > > common. An ncurses menu popped up warning me: > > > > "The GRUB boot loaders was previously installed to a disk that is no > > longer > > present, or whose unique identifier has changed for some reason". > > > > It offered to install in /dev/vda, /dev/vda1, or /dev/vda2. I > > selected /dev/ > > vda which represents the virtual disk. It failed to install in > > /dev/vda > > because the device did not contain a BIOS_grub partition. > > > > I tried 'grub-install --force' and --boot-directory options, but in > > all cases > > it failed to install. At the end I had to create a new 1M partition > > with > > gdisk and set its type to ef02 (BIOS boot partition), before grub > > would > > install its core image successfully. > > > > > > QUESTIONS: > > > > Why/how the initial installation succeeded without an ef02 partition, > > but a > > grub package update would not proceed without it? Where did the Mint > > installer store the grub core image to be able to continue with the > > installation? > > Are you sure this wasn't fallout from the recent grub problems in the > Mint ISO? (https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3620) I thought I got the > link to that on this list, but I can't find the relevant message, so > I'm not sure where I saw it. However, it seems like the issue was that > installing Mint messed up Grub and left the PC unbootable. > > Jack
Thanks Jack, I posted this blog entry on another thread, but the GRUB problem described there breaks EFI installations when the live session is connected to the Internet. Mine installed fine at the time. So, I don't think the blog entry is related to my case above. -- Regards, Mick
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