Win 10 EMBR installation...

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jdmckay
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:05 pm

Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by jdmckay »

Hello and happy holidays!

Long time BingNG user in pre-UEFI days. Bought BM about 5 years ago, but had moved from MS to MAC until a few weeks ago so never used/installed BM. Have a new Toshiba Satellite preloaded with Win10 Home. Successfully added a Linux Mint installation that was dual booting fine with GRUB prior to plowing through docs here on setting up BM EMBR installation. I was unfamiliar with UEFI and its "challenges".

Looks like I'm well on my way, but a few questions remain.

I read/did everything in TB's articles:
- Convert a Disk from GPT to MBR or MBR to GPT using the chgdtype.tbs Script
- Converting a GPT Data or Windows Disk to MBR/EMBR
I had full HD backups (w/IFL), and both Win10 and my Mint installations imaged as well. Same with WinRE as recommended by TB docs.

I now have BM installed with EMBR, followed TB's instructions for RE and much to my surprise... it actually works. :) I deleted all Win 10 partitions suggested in TB articles mentioned above and it's booting with only primary Win10 NTFS remaining. BM "Partition Work" sees all partitions (including MINT) I had prior to converting disk to EMBR. Just beginning this morning reading TB's GRUB articles looking for solution to...

BM-Partition Work has my Mint partitions all as unbootable. Installation was setup w/3 Linux partitions (root/boot/swap).

Any ideas how to correct this (make them bootable)? I'm still somewhat of a Linux neophyte... want to be careful to not do anything that will screw up BM's EMBR settings doing this. Mint was installed running bios under UEFI, not sure (yet) if that's got anything to do with this.

I have IFL backup of Mint installation (is that of use for this?).

Ok, Thanks in advance.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by TeraByte Support »

You need to install the kernel loader to the partition:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408


"jdmckay" wrote in message news:10747@public.bootitbm...

Hello and happy holidays!

Long time BingNG user in pre-UEFI days. Bought BM about 5 years ago, but
had moved from MS to MAC until a few weeks ago so never used/installed BM.
Have a new Toshiba Satellite preloaded with Win10 Home. Successfully added
a Linux Mint installation that was dual booting fine with GRUB prior to
plowing through docs here on setting up BM EMBR installation. I was
unfamiliar with UEFI and its "challenges".

Looks like I'm well on my way, but a few questions remain.

I read/did everything in TB's articles:
- Convert a Disk from GPT to MBR or MBR to GPT using the chgdtype.tbs Script
- Converting a GPT Data or Windows Disk to MBR/EMBR
I had full HD backups (w/IFL), and both Win10 and my Mint installations
imaged as well. Same with WinRE as recommended by TB docs.

I now have BM installed with EMBR, followed TB's instructions for RE and
much to my surprise... it actually works.

![:)]({SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif)

I deleted all Win 10 partitions suggested in TB articles mentioned above and
it's booting with only primary Win10 NTFS remaining. BM "Partition Work"
sees all partitions (including MINT) I had prior to converting disk to EMBR.
Just beginning this morning reading TB's GRUB articles looking for solution
to...

BM-Partition Work has my Mint partitions all as unbootable. Installation
was setup w/3 Linux partitions (root/boot/swap).

Any ideas how to correct this (make them bootable)? I'm still somewhat of
a Linux neophyte... want to be careful to not do anything that will screw up
BM's EMBR settings doing this. Mint was installed running bios under UEFI,
not sure (yet) if that's got anything to do with this.

I have IFL backup of Mint installation (is that of use for this?).

Ok, Thanks in advance.

jdmckay
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:05 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by jdmckay »

Thanks

> You need to install the kernel loader to the partition:
> http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

Hmmm... tried that, boots straight to 'grub rescue' which has no "Search" command.

message @ boot: "error: symbol 'grub-isprint' not found'
jdmckay
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:05 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by jdmckay »

Ok, got through most of suggestions in article:

grub> search -f --no-floppy /grub/grub.cfg
hd0, msdos2

grub> configfile (hd0,msdos2)/grub/grub.cfg

So far, so good... this got me GRUB boot menu and loaded Mint (had to press "S" key ).


jim@C55-B ~ $ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 19091584 5405308 12693408 30% /
none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 1949344 12 1949332 1% /dev
tmpfs 393076 1384 391692 1% /run
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 1965372 672 1964700 1% /run/shm
none 102400 12 102388 1% /run/user
/dev/sda2 945144 51188 828728 6% /boot
/dev/sda3 47930248 10231556 35240888 23% /home
/dev/sr0 2188 2188 0 100% /media/jim/ISOIMAGE


jim@C55-B ~ $ sudo grub-install --force --recheck /dev/sda2
[sudo] password for jim:
grub-install.real: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.
jim@C55-B ~ $

Questions:

My partition (df) readout "weird" in that the 3 "none" partions were not part of my installation. They do not show up in GPARTED either.

Bigger concern at moment is failure of grub-install. I don't know what to make of the error message.

Any help with this GREATLY appreciated.

(my) Mint IS Ubuntu based: read you suggestions (If you do not get the "Installation finished. No error reported"), however Mint doesn't always use all Ubuntu's packages. My package manager warns against suggestion for UBUNTU update you make: I posted on Mint forum asking about this, maybe someone will have good advice tomorow (Monday).

WRT partitions listed above, I'm wondering if my restore options in IFL were not correct. I did restore using default global options.

Ok, any help appreciated. And... this is for me more an exercise in getting these operations working smooth in BiBM then actual restoration of this particular MINT install... there's nothing in it to lose. I'm experimenting with different (L)AMP stack setups and am going to be trying quite a few with different distros. Want to be able to img/remove and img/restore them without a glitch.

Ok, thx.
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

jdmckay wrote:
> Ok, got through most of suggestions in article:
>
> grub> search -f --no-floppy /grub/grub.cfg
> hd0, msdos2
>
> grub> configfile (hd0,msdos2)/grub/grub.cfg
>
> So far, so good... this got me GRUB boot menu and loaded Mint (had to press
> "S" key ).
>
>
> jim@C55-B ~ $ df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda1 19091584 5405308 12693408 30% /
> none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
> udev 1949344 12 1949332 1% /dev
> tmpfs 393076 1384 391692 1% /run
> none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
> none 1965372 672 1964700 1% /run/shm
> none 102400 12 102388 1% /run/user
> /dev/sda2 945144 51188 828728 6% /boot
> /dev/sda3 47930248 10231556 35240888 23% /home
> /dev/sr0 2188 2188 0 100% /media/jim/ISOIMAGE
>
>

> jim@C55-B ~ $
>
> Questions:
>
> My partition (df) readout "weird" in that the 3 "none" partions
> were not part of my installation. They do not show up in GPARTED either.

The "none" partitions are not actually partitions, so they wouldn't show up in any partitioning program like Gparted. Those are set up by the OS itself for internal purposes. They are usually mounts on a RAM based file system like tmpfs.

> jim@C55-B ~ $ sudo grub-install --force --recheck /dev/sda2
> [sudo] password for jim:
> grub-install.real: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please
> specify --target or --directory.
>
> Bigger concern at moment is failure of grub-install. I don't know what to make of
> the error message.
>

The file /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh belongs to the 'grub-pc-bin' package in Debian, which is likely the same package name for Mint. That package would normally be installed by default when installing on an MBR based system, but not if installing on a UEFI system. The same is true of the 'grub-pc' package which you are probably also missing.

I'd suggest finding those 2 packages in your package manager and installing them, then try the grub-install command again.

Worse comes to worse, if you install Mint from scratch on that system now that it's MBR based, the correct grub packages will get installed.
jdmckay
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:05 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by jdmckay »

Hi Again...

> The file /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh belongs to the 'grub-pc-bin' package in Debian, which is likely the
> same package name for Mint. That package would normally be installed by default when installing on an
> MBR based system, but not if installing on a UEFI system. The same is true of the 'grub-pc' package which
> you are probably also missing. s

> I'd suggest finding those 2 packages in your package manager and installing them, then try the grub-install command again.

Both packages were installed. Still I uninstalled (apt) both and reinstalled. Hasn't made a difference.

Right now, I can boot into Mint w/out grub2 disk... but have to jump through some hoops (bunch of warnings). It runs ok, but hangs on shutdown.


Here's what I got trying grub-install again:

> jim@C55-B ~ $ sudo grub-install --force --recheck /dev/sda2
> Installing for i386-pc platform.
> grub-install.real: warning: File system `ext2' doesn't support embedding.
> grub-install.real: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be
> installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are
> UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..

So grub-install thinks this is an ext2 partition? Any idea why?

GPARTED sees ext4 partitions. (see attachment).
Attachments
part-info.png
part-info.png (55.7 KiB) Viewed 11647 times
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

jdmckay wrote:
> Hi Again...
>
> > The file /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh belongs to the 'grub-pc-bin' package
> in Debian, which is likely the
> > same package name for Mint. That package would normally be installed by default
> when installing on an
> > MBR based system, but not if installing on a UEFI system. The same is true of
> the 'grub-pc' package which
> > you are probably also missing. s
>
> > I'd suggest finding those 2 packages in your package manager and installing
> them, then try the grub-install command again.
>
> Both packages were installed. Still I uninstalled (apt) both and reinstalled.
> Hasn't made a difference.
>
> Right now, I can boot into Mint w/out grub2 disk... but have to jump through some
> hoops (bunch of warnings). It runs ok, but hangs on shutdown.
>
>
> Here's what I got trying grub-install again:
>
> > jim@C55-B ~ $ sudo grub-install --force --recheck /dev/sda2
> > Installing for i386-pc platform.
> > grub-install.real: warning: File system `ext2' doesn't support embedding.
> > grub-install.real: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be
> > installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are
> > UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
>
> So grub-install thinks this is an ext2 partition? Any idea why?
>
> GPARTED sees ext4 partitions. (see attachment).

I believe in this case grub2 is using "ext2" generically to mean ext2, ext3, or ext4. Embedding (which is what grub2 does when it installs itself to the MBR/first track) is not possible on ext2/3/4 partitions because there is not enough room to fit the code. When installing to a partition, It can only install the boot sector, since that's all there is room for.

However, did you get the "Installation finished. No error reported" message when you ran 'grub-install'? Or did the output end with what you show above? The warning message you show above is normal to see on a successful install of grub2 to a partition, as long as you also get the "Installation finished" message at the end.
jdmckay
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:05 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by jdmckay »

Hi Again,
r
> >
I believe in this case grub2 is using "ext2" generically to mean ext2, ext3, or ext4. Embedding (which is what grub2 does when it installs itself to the MBR/first track) is not possible on ext2/3/4 partitions because there is not enough room to fit the code. When installing to a partition, It can only install the boot sector, since that's all there is room for.
<<

Thx... I found some explanations after my last post here. Seems Linux only has a grub2 module for installing in Ext2, and uses that for any other partition. Working of that message (IMO) could be clearer. me
>>
However, did you get the "Installation finished. No error reported" message when you ran 'grub-install'? Or did the output end with what you show above? The warning message you show above is normal to see on a successful install of grub2 to a partition, as long as you also get the "Installation finished" message at the end.
<<

It is now working, yes... Thx. Shuts down correctly now and still some warnings at bootup that shouldn't be there (not related to GRUB... I've almost got them now).

Thanks for sticking with me on this. I think you article on this was very good... pretty sure I can do this successfully, quickly, next time.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Win 10 EMBR installation...

Post by TeraByte Support »

Were you able to solve the grub_isprint error?

jdmckay wrote:
> Thanks
>
> > You need to install the kernel loader to the partition:
> > http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408
>
> Hmmm... tried that, boots straight to 'grub rescue' which has no "Search"
> command.
>
> message @ boot: "error: symbol 'grub-isprint' not found'
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