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Job

Member

Registered: 2019-03-13

Posts: 62  

(Solved) Unable to install GRUB

I don't remember ever having this issue while running an installation.  Anybody had any idea why I can't get pass this issue?  See shot.
Secure boot is disabled and I am using legacy BIOS.  There is only one drive in the box and no dual boot.

Thank you,

Last edited by Job (2020-05-25 03:55:36)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

Did you switch to TTY4 or check the install log to see if there were more error messages?

At a guess you have a disk with a GUID partition table but no BIOS boot partition to hold GRUB's core.img for a non-UEFI system.

Can we see

# parted --list

^ You can run that from any live ISO image.

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

Job

Member

Registered: 2019-03-13

Posts: 62  

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

Thank you for your assistance.

user@debian:~$ sudo parted --list
Model: ATA SHGS31-500GS-2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
1      1049kB  483GB  483GB   primary   ext4
2      483GB   500GB  17.1GB  extended
5      483GB   500GB  17.1GB  logical   linux-swap(v1)

Model: Generic Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8212MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
2      760kB  3774kB  3015kB  primary               esp

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Model: HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GS40N (scsi)                                     
Disk /dev/sr0: 3758MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
2      47.5MB  49.3MB  1835kB  primary               esp

Last edited by Job (2020-05-25 00:51:06)

Job

Member

Registered: 2019-03-13

Posts: 62  

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

I just tried a Debian method but did not work.  https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall

Job

Member

Registered: 2019-03-13

Posts: 62  

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

Installation was installing to sda I changed that to sda1 and all went well.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

I changed that to sda1

Installing GRUB to a partition is not recommended:

installing to a filesystem means that GRUB is vulnerable to its blocks being moved around by filesystem features such as tail packing, or even by aggressive fsck implementations, so this approach is quite fragile

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manua … stallation

What happens if you try to install to the block device?

# grub-install /dev/sda

Please post any error messages returned in full.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2020-05-25 10:27:42)

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

aus9

Member

Registered: 2020-03-24

Posts: 37  

Re: (Solved) Unable to install GRUB

@Job

some older computers have an issue with grub2 with the booting files go onto a partion larger than 8G

If you think this might affect you....use a live cd/Devuan to run gparted

create primary partitions
sda1 100 Mb  for /boot
sda2  (say) 8G for swap
sda3 for balance (/)

then try installer again and see if it works.....if above solutions do not work for you

ref
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html
section=Support Logical Block Address mode

Last edited by aus9 (2020-05-25 10:53:32)