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Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:29 pm
by rustleg
I installed Debian Linux 6 (Squeeze) from CD on a new Solid State Drive (SSD) and went through the installation as normal (I've done it many times on a hard disc) and when I reboot after doing the install I get the message from BIBM that the partition is not bootable. I'm not sure exactly what this is telling me. The partition is marked as active when I look at the MBR in BIBM. Does it mean that it can't see the boot loader on the partition? I was careful to install Grub2 to /dev/sdc2 (which is the only partition in the partition table on sdc - the Solid State Drive).

One thing which was interesting was that this was a second attempt. During the first attempt the Debian installer said it needed to change the partition table of the SDD although it wasn't clear to me why. I thought the not bootable problem might be that the root partition was too high up (I had located it near the end of the 120GB drive) so I redid the install with the partition located at around the 40GB mark and then it didn't mention anything about changing the partition table. But I still get BIBM telling me that the partition is not bootable.

I've successfully installed this OS on a hard drive so I don't know what the problem is.

When I looked at the partition properties it said that the location of this partition would prevent some OS's from booting from it. Could someone explain what could be wrong with the location?

I have been able to install Linux Mint 11 on this SSD (which also has the "the location of this partition would prevent some OS's from booting from it" message and is a derivative of Debian) without any problems. I also have then used this OS to mount the new Debian root partition to have a look at it although I don't really know what to look at. I had a look at the fstab file which is as follows:

Code: Select all

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults  0 0
# / was on /dev/sdc2 during installation
UUID=e0834fe0-2380-49be-a92b-1926398f3f7b /  ext4  defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dataD was on /dev/sdb4 during installation
UUID=1A3B-0200  /dataD  vfat  utf8,uid=1000,gid=46,shortname=mixed  0 0
# /dataE was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=211E-0200  /dataE  vfat  utf8,uid=1000,gid=46,shortname=mixed  0 0
# /old was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=3ec0812a-5a16-4867-bf39-6b1aef2fe5cf /old  ext4  defaults  0  2
# swap was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=90b862b2-d953-4301-b437-09dd63968297 none  swap  sw  0 0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto  0 0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0 0
Any suggestions would be welcome. Please note that I can get around a linux command line but I am in no way a linux expert.

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:28 pm
by TeraByte Support
The kernel loader needs to be in the partition, not the MBR. See the
various GRUB articles at
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/category.php?id=20


"rustleg" wrote in message news:452@public.bootitbm...

I installed Debian Linux 6 (Squeeze) from CD on a new Solid State Drive
(SSD) and went through the installation as normal (I've done it many times
on a hard disc) and when I reboot after doing the install I get the message
from BIBM that the partition is not bootable. I'm not sure exactly what this
is telling me. The partition is marked as active when I look at the MBR in
BIBM. Does it mean that it can't see the boot loader on the partition? I was
careful to install Grub2 to /dev/sdc2 (which is the only partition in the
partition table on sdc - the Solid State Drive).

One thing which was interesting was that this was a second attempt. During
the first attempt the Debian installer said it needed to change the
partition table of the SDD although it wasn't clear to me why. I thought the
not bootable problem might be that the root partition was too high up (I had
located it near the end of the 120GB drive) so I redid the install with the
partition located at around the 40GB mark and then it didn't mention
anything about changing the partition table. But I still get BIBM telling me
that the partition is not bootable.

I've successfully installed this OS on a hard drive so I don't know what the
problem is.

When I looked at the partition properties it said that the location of this
partition would prevent some OS's from booting from it. Could someone
explain what could be wrong with the location?

I have been able to install Linux Mint 11 on this SSD (which also has the
"the location of this partition would prevent some OS's from booting
from it" message and is a derivative of Debian) without any problems. I
also have then used this OS to mount the new Debian root partition to have a
look at it although I don't really know what to look at. I had a look at the
fstab file which is as follows:

[code:j03o01bt]
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options>
<dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sdc2 during installation
UUID=e0834fe0-2380-49be-a92b-1926398f3f7b / ext4
defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dataD was on /dev/sdb4 during installation
UUID=1A3B-0200 /dataD vfat utf8,uid=1000,gid=46,shortname=mixed 0 0
# /dataE was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=211E-0200 /dataE vfat utf8,uid=1000,gid=46,shortname=mixed 0 0
# /old was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=3ec0812a-5a16-4867-bf39-6b1aef2fe5cf /old ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=90b862b2-d953-4301-b437-09dd63968297 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
[/code:j03o01bt]
Any suggestions would be welcome. Please note that I can get around a linux
command line but I am in no way a linux expert.


Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:05 pm
by rustleg
I don't understand this response. I said I installed Grub in /dev/sdc2 not dev/sdc so doesn't this mean it is in the partition? If it was put in the MBR I presume it would have overwritten BIBM which didn't happen. I base all this on my understanding of BootitNG. Is there something different about BIBM?

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:02 pm
by TeraByte Support(TP)
/dev/sdc2 is a partition, but for some reason it sounds like the Grub boot code didn't get installed there during the installation, and that's the reason why BIBM says the partition isn't bootable. It's not related to the partition being set active or not.

I'd suggest following the procedure in this KB article to see if you can boot manually into the Debian partition from a grub boot disk, and if successful with that, then try to install grub manually from Debian with the 'grub-install' command. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

To do that, you'll need a grub2 boot disk. You can download one from the link in the KB article.

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:14 pm
by George
I used to have this problem while installing Linux partitions on my
various hard drives until I tried this little item that I found in the
(at the time) BING manual. The following is extracted from the BIBM
manual, page 28:

Select the item, and then press and hold down the left Shift key while
selecting Boot to perform a simulated boot that only updates the
partition table. You’ll hear a beep when performing this option (if the
computer’s internal speakers work). This option is useful when the MBR
needs loaded, but booting into the OS is not required.
---
After this was done, I did a Cntrl-Alt-Delete to boot my install CD and
everything worked like a charm.

George
---
There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary and
Those who don't.

On 10/7/2011 4:02 PM, TP wrote:
> /dev/sdc2 is a partition, but for some reason it sounds like the Grub boot code didn't get installed there during the installation, and that's the reason why BIBM says the partition isn't bootable. It's not related to the partition being set active or not.
>
> I'd suggest following the procedure in this KB article to see if you can boot manually into the Debian partition from a grub boot disk, and if successful with that, then try to install grub manually from Debian with the 'grub-install' command.http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408
>
> To do that, you'll need a grub2 boot disk. You can download one from the link in the KB article.

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:55 pm
by TeraByte Support(TP)
I re-read your original post and noticed this:

"I was careful to install Grub2 to /dev/sdc2 (which is the only partition in the
partition table on sdc - the Solid State Drive)."

I just tried a Debian 6.0 install here, and, like you did, I put the root partition on a drive by itself with an empty partition slot in front of it. It was /dev/sdb2 in my case, with /dev/sdb1 being an empty partition table slot. The install completed, and it installed Grub2 to /dev/sdb2 without any error, but yet I ended up with the same problem you had - the root partition was not bootable. I repeated the install, but put a FAT32 partition in /dev/sdb1 to occupy the empty slot. This time, grub got installed to /dev/sdb2, and booted OK from BIBM (says Bootable = yes in Partition Work/Properties).

Trying to fix it manually like I suggested in my previous won't work. You need to either make that root partition /dev/sdc1, or put another partition in front of it in /dev/sdc1. IOW no empty slots before the root partition. The fact that it's SSD is not factor.

The "only partition" part of your post is what got my attention, because Grub2 has a similar kind of problem when trying to install it to a volume in an extended partition. No error message during install, but it doesn't get installed. I hadn't run across it before when installing to a primary though, because by habit I don't usually leave an empty slot.

Also, I just noticed that I didn't use the latest Debian installer version. I used 6.0.1a net install CD, while the latest version of it is 6.0.2. I don't know which version you used, but it's possible they've fixed this in the later version.

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:03 pm
by rustleg
Thanks Tom. I'm glad you stopped me from trying to sort out Grub2 - the comprehensive instructions on the website show what a complicated operation this would be. I regret that they've decided to move from Grub to Grub2. Previously I could just relocate OS partitions around and Grub would still boot - not so Grub2 and when I tried some time ago to work out how to alter the setup to get a relocated partition to boot I failed to get it to work. I tried asking the Debian user group but didn't find out anything which allowed me to do it. I'd need to get much more into Grub2 before I could do this and so I chose to take the easy option of reinstalling.

To get back to the issues in my post - you are correct in that making the root partition /dev/sdc1 fixed the problem (even if there is "free" space on the drive before this which the partitioner sees). I suspect some bug here as also I got an odd message when I had set up the partitioning in the install and before committing. It said "The partition tables of the following devices are changed: SCSI1(0,0,0) sda" although I hadn't changed anything. At this point there were 2 partitions defined on sda (not the SSD boot item sdc). So I experimented by trying an install with only the SSD specified in the Debian partitioner which gave the same message although it then quoted "SCSI4(0,0,0) sdc". After letting it proceed past the partitioner I aborted and looked at the MBR in BIBM which didn't seem to have altered. So I then did the proper install and everything worked ok (even though the message about partition tables being changed still occurred).

I used the latest Debian netinst version 6.0.2.1 so they haven't fixed it yet.

I appreciate the time you took to advise on this - thanks.


George - thanks for the reminder about simulated boot although I didn't need it since the partition was newly created in BIBM and so wouldn't boot yet even if the shift key isn't pressed.

Re: Partition not bootable?

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:24 am
by DrTeeth
On Sat, 8 Oct 2011 06:03:20 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
rustleg disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>George - thanks for the reminder about simulated boot although I didn't need it since the partition was newly created in BIBM and so wouldn't boot yet even if the shift key isn't pressed.

It is good practice to 'reboot' before installing an OS, especially if
one has primaries unlimited.
--

Cheers

DrT
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