booting slackware with gpt, neither lilo nor grub seem to work

[ㄨㄛ]

Hello group.

I think I'm stuck here. And it is difficult for me to specify the
problem...

Using slackware for years, I always was happy with the simplicity of the
architecture and never had problems.

Now I bought a new lenovo ideapad p580 with a windows 8 on it.

Formerly I always deleted the windows partitions, this time I thought
that for some purposes at my working places I could keep a 200 GB
windows partition (the harddisk having 1000GB).

With the help of windows program from inside, I shrank the main
partitions to have +/- 700 GB for Linux left.

Then I had to realize that this windows 8 harddisk does not use MBR any
more, but is using gpt, so fdisk did not work, but gdisk did.

I made a clean install of Slackware 14.0. Windows continued starting
up, but i had no dual boot.

Lilo did not install, I googled that lilo cannot cooperate with gpt.

As on my slack-64-bit-dvd there was no grub package, I installed a suse
12 system, which in turn installed grub correctly, but now neither
windows 8 nor slackware 14 could start - i.e. they started, but windows
complains that there is a config partition corrupt, and slackware had a
kernel panic.

I _can_ start slackware from the install disk with 'huge.s <device>
rdinit= ro, an it runs perfectly.

Now I took the grub package from the 32 bit version, but grub-config
says that it does not find a linux partition!

I uninstalled grub with super grub iso, and now nothing works any more,
except that I can start slackware from the install disk - tried to
create a boot stick, but the boot stick won't boot.

Perhaps this has to do with gpt? The hard disk has 1000 GB.
I fear that I corrupted the MBR or more. Unfortunately, there was no
install disk which I could use to reinstall windows and begin the
procedure anew.

Or is it an option just to reformat the whole harddisk, 1000GB, use
slackware only? Can lilo manage this size?


thanks to anyone who looks into this,

erich


--
e·r·i·c·h·h·o·f·f·m·a·n·n{a·t}g·m·x.d·e

[Marco Maggi]

ㄨㄛ wrote:
> I think I'm stuck here. And it is difficult for me to specify the
> problem...

[...]

> Now I bought a new lenovo ideapad p580 with a windows 8 on it.

I own an Acer Aspire, never seen a Lenovo; I give you some
random info here in the hope it will be useful. On my
system:

* By default at netbook boot time there is no way to enter
the traditional BIOS setup interface.

* To enter the BIOS: I have to boot Windows 8 and activate
the old MBR interface, then reboot. There is a
configuration option that allows me to select either UEFI
boot or MBR boot.

* To boot from a stick: I have to enter the BIOS setup and
change the order of selection of boot devices.

Maybe it is useful to look at my disk partitions:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54505 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 420MB 419MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 420MB 735MB 315MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
3 735MB 869MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
4 869MB 273GB 272GB ntfs Basic data partition
6 273GB 274GB 1049MB ext2 root
7 274GB 275GB 1049MB ext4 tmp
8 275GB 276GB 1049MB ext4 var
9 276GB 289GB 12.6GB linux-swap(v1) swap
10 289GB 341GB 52.4GB ext4 usr
11 341GB 367GB 26.2GB ext4 local
12 367GB 394GB 26.2GB ext4 opt
13 394GB 483GB 89.1GB ext4 home
5 483GB 500GB 17.3GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag

notice that (on my system) Windows 8 does not come with a
single partition, rather it comes with:

* sda1 as partition for private stuff.

* sda2 as EFI partition used to hold the UEFI boot stuff.

* sda3 as partition for private stuff.

* sda4 as core partition with the Windows 8 actual
installation.

* sda5 as yet another private partition.

I have created the Slackware partitions by shrinking sda4
and filling the resulting free space.

IMHO you really really need to get Windows 8 to boot
again. If you succeed, do this to enable MBR booting:

1. Boot Windows 8 and enter the Start screen.

2. Move the mouse to the bottom-right of the screen, on the
dash button, until the ``charms'' toolbar appears.

3. Select "Settings" from the charms toolbar then select
"Change PC Settings" at the bottom of the "Settings" box.
This will enter a PC customisation application. Wander
around satisying yourself.

4. When ready, select "General" from the left menu; scroll
down the right frame to the "Advanced startup" section
and click on the button "Restart now".

5. The system restarts and enters a "Choose an option"
screen; select "Troubleshoot", then "Advanced options",
then "UEFI Firmware Settings": in the "UEFI Firmware
Settings" screen click on the "Restart" button.

6. The system should enter the classic BIOS setup screen.

On my system:

* In the "Main" menu: enable the "F12 Boot Menu" option.

* In the "Boot" menu: raise to the top the "USB HDD" option
in the "Boot Priority Order" list.

* In the "Boot" menu: check that "Secure Boot" is disabled.

* In the "Boot" menu: enable the "Legacy BIOS" option.

* Exit saving options.

If possible, I suggest you to download a System Rescue CD
image and prepare a bootable USB stick with it as explained
at their site[1]; at least you have a comfortable system to
boot from a stick. Unfortunately, such stick will boot only
if MBR booting is enabled.

As UEFI boot manager I use Roderick W. Smith's refind[2],
which allows us to select the operating system we want to
boot: it will automatically recognise the boot loaders in
the EFI partition and create a graphical menu at boot time
to select one of them. On the site there is extensive
documentation on the UEFI boot process.

As UEFI Linux boot loader I use elilo[3], which is used by
refind to load the Linux kernel and boot Slackware.

After everything is installed correctly, in the EFI
partition (which I optionally mount under /boot/efi) I have:

$ $ ls /boot/efi/
EFI
~ $ ls /boot/efi/EFI/
Boot Microsoft OEM Slackware tools
~ $ ls /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/
Boot bootmgfw.efi
~ $ ls /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/
elilo.conf elilo.efi vmlinuz-huge-3.2.29

where "vmlinuz-huge-3.2.29" is the huge kernel installed by
Slackware. At present my elilo.conf is:

verbose=1
prompt
timeout=50
delay=50
chooser=simple
default=huge
image=vmlinuz-huge-3.2.29
description="Slackware Linux Huge Kernel 3.2.29"
label=huge
read-only
root=/dev/sda6
append="-- acpi_osi=Linux"

I still run the huge kernel, but in the future I will have
to build a custom kernel; that day things will change under
the "Slackware" directory.

HTH

[1] <http://www.sysresccd.org>
[2] <http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/>
[3] <http://elilo.sourceforge.net/>
--
"Now feel the funk blast!"
Rage Against the Machine - "Calm like a bomb"

[Bit Twister]

On 30 Jun 2013 13:34:19 GMT, ㄨㄛ wrote:
>
> Lilo did not install, I googled that lilo cannot cooperate with gpt.

Unless they have fixed lilo I would also guess lilo can not access the
linux partition that far out on the disk. That is why I had to switch
to grub on my large drives.

> Perhaps this has to do with gpt?

Well, I wiped Windows from all my systems. Used gparted to create
gpt for all 6 of my drives on three 64 bit systems and have no problem
booting. Running Mageia Linux 3 using legacy grub. Not grub 2.

> Or is it an option just to reformat the whole harddisk, 1000GB, use
> slackware only? Can lilo manage this size?

If the image location is within the range of lilo access then the
answer would be yes.

[ㄨㄛ]

Am Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:45:50 +0200 schrieb Marco Maggi:

Hello Marco! Thanks for your detailed answer.

> ㄨㄛ wrote:
[...]

> I own an Acer Aspire, never seen a Lenovo; I give you some random
> info here in the hope it will be useful. On my system:
>
> * By default at netbook boot time there is no way to enter
> the traditional BIOS setup interface.

> * To enter the BIOS: I have to boot Windows 8 and activate

On my lenovo I could enter the BIOS interface by continuously tapping
<F2> at startup :)

...

> * To boot from a stick: I have to enter the BIOS setup and
> change the order of selection of boot devices.

done.

> Maybe it is useful to look at my disk partitions:
>

This is similiar to mine.

> notice that (on my system) Windows 8 does not come with a single
> partition, rather it comes with:
>

dito.

> I have created the Slackware partitions by shrinking sda4 and filling
> the resulting free space.

dito.

> IMHO you really really need to get Windows 8 to boot
> again. If you succeed,

I erazed the old grub sector with super grub iso, and the nothing
started anymore. Then I reinstalled suse linux with grub installed on
the partition, and windows came back. Now the system starts directly
into windows, the other partitions remain intact.

> 1. Boot Windows 8 and enter the Start screen.

I'm in the classic bios setup screen now.

> 6. The system should enter the classic BIOS setup screen.
>
> On my system:
>
> * In the "Main" menu: enable the "F12 Boot Menu" option.
>
> * In the "Boot" menu: raise to the top the "USB HDD" option
> in the "Boot Priority Order" list.
>
> * In the "Boot" menu: check that "Secure Boot" is disabled.
>
> * In the "Boot" menu: enable the "Legacy BIOS" option.
>
> * Exit saving options.
>
> If possible, I suggest you to download a System Rescue CD
> image and prepare a bootable USB stick with it as explained at their

good idea, I guess

> As UEFI boot manager I use Roderick W. Smith's refind[2],

[...]

>
> As UEFI Linux boot loader I use elilo[3], which is used by
> refind to load the Linux kernel and boot Slackware.
>
> After everything is installed correctly, in the EFI
> partition (which I optionally mount under /boot/efi) I have:
>

[...]
> HTH

You did, thank you. But this is beyond everything I did up to now, so,
it will take some time to work my way through it.

Thanks!
erich

> [1] <http://www.sysresccd.org>
> [2] <http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/>
> [3] <http://elilo.sourceforge.net/>





--

[ㄨㄛ]

Am Sun, 30 Jun 2013 15:41:03 +0000 schrieb Bit Twister:

Hello bit twister.

> On 30 Jun 2013 13:34:19 GMT, ㄨㄛ wrote:

[...]

> Well, I wiped Windows from all my systems. Used gparted to create gpt
> for all 6 of my drives on three 64 bit systems and have no problem
> booting. Running Mageia Linux 3 using legacy grub. Not grub 2.
>

Well, wiping everything out will be my last resort. I'll see - this
will take some time. Thanks!

[ㄨㄛ]

Am Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:34:19 +0000 schrieb ㄨㄛ:

> Hello group.
>
> I think I'm stuck here. And it is difficult for me to specify the
> problem...

I want to thank you. I followed everything everyone wrote me and
learned a lot about booting mechanisms from the perspective of
hardware, software and OS.

At a given point I had to ask myself: Erich, what are you doing here?
You have been happily using slackware for much over a decade. Now you
spend the 3rd day trying to keep a windows 8. Why? Everytime you
start it, you see two dozens of apps you'll never need. This is much
worse than KDE (excuse me for not appreciating this very sweet eye
candy), but it lacks everything you want. Perhaps sometime you might use
that for communications with your job place. When was the last time you
did that?

I answered to myself: This isn't worth it.

The Windows 8 harddisk comes with the GUID-PT
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table). I could have
installed EFI and dived into the UEFI partition table format.
I decided that this is not (yet?) necessary.

After booting the slack 14 installation disk,
I changed the partition table with the following commands:

parted /dev/sdX
mklabel msdos
quit

(got from Marek Kralewski in the german freiburg linux user group)

then I repartitioned the whole harddisk and put the 3 partitions I
intend to boot from on top of the partition table. Everything works
fine. Lilo works great. 1 TB is _really_ huge.

Except the usb boot sticks. They are recognized and started, but then
they freeze. But this really does not matter, because with the
installation disk I always get the system running. 10 years ago, I did
not realize why the installation disk is called "the ultimate rescue
disk". It is!

In my early linux days there was a helpful book "running linux"
by Matt Welsh, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Lar Kaufman. They write
"look at the knobs on your computer". In fact I found a tiny knob
starting the lenovo in recovery mode, and though there is no recovery
any more, it allows to adjust the boot sequence and change the boot
device with no problems.

So I'm fine now. Thanks to you!

erich

[Chick Tower]

On 2013-06-30, Marco Maggi wrote:
> Wander around satisying yourself.

That's a good way to add legal problems to whatever computer problems
Erich had before.
--
Chick Tower

For e-mail: aols2 DOT sent DOT towerboy AT xoxy DOT net

[Loki Harfagr]

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 17:26:10 +0000, Chick Tower did cat :

> On 2013-06-30, Marco Maggi wrote:
>> Wander around satisying yourself.
>
> That's a good way to add legal problems to whatever computer problems
> Erich had before.

not including possible keyboard and whatnot replacement, pity :D)

[nehalj...@gmail.com]

This is a sample video showing how to install Slackware 14 in UEFI Mode and Dual Boot with Windows 8 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBIWSEoWIkw

[Mike Spencer]

On Sunday, June 30, 2013 7:04:19 PM UTC+5:30, =E3=84=A8=E3=84=9B wrote:

> Perhaps this has to do with gpt? The hard disk has 1000 GB.
>
> I fear that I corrupted the MBR or more. Unfortunately, there was no
> install disk which I could use to reinstall windows and begin the
> procedure anew.
>
> Or is it an option just to reformat the whole harddisk, 1000GB, use
> slackware only? Can lilo manage this size?

On a new Acer, I set the machine to use BIOS boot, used the gdisk(8)
'z' command ("zap") to clear the disk and then proceeded as usual with
installing LILO on the MBR. I wasn't interested in learning all about
the new HD layout and coping with unexpected annoyances.

Doesn't fully answer your question as I have only 500 GB HD.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[Rich]

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

> On Sunday, June 30, 2013 7:04:19 PM UTC+5:30, =E3=84=A8=E3=84=9B wrote:

> > Or is it an option just to reformat the whole harddisk, 1000GB, use
> > slackware only?

This is always an option.

> Can lilo manage this size?

Lilo can manage any size disk that the BIOS (which lilo uses to load
the kernel) is capable of physically addressing. It has been years
since Lilo effectively had any real size limitations, so it is likely
it would work. Worst case, you create a tiny /boot partition as the
first partition on the disk (tiny == 1-2GB [which is too much, but on a
1T disk, not a lot to set aside]) and let lilo install into that
partition.

The only way to answer your question is to try it and see.