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grub-install Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdXY
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Musbur
Sep 15, 2021, 1:50:04 AM9/15/21
to
Hello,
I somehow managed to screw up my /boot partition. Now I'm trying to
re-install it by booting from a Debian installer stick. After network
configuration, I do this:
1) Mount the root partition at /
2) # for s in dev sys proc; do mount --bind /$s /mnt/$s; done
3) # mount --bind /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
4) # chroot /mnt
5) mount /dev/sda2 /boot
Now I'm in my "full" Debian system. Next:
# grub-install /dev/sda2
# apt install [linux kernel]
# update-grub
Error: Cannot find GRUB drive for /dev/sda2
I tried both the grub-pc as well as the grub-efi versions. I don't
really know what the difference is and how it works, but with EFI I get
a similar error (something like EFI directory not found)
BTW /dev/sda is an external SSD connected via USB3. I've been using this
setup for years to boot my employer's company Windows laptop as my
private Linux machine (not touching the internal SSD at all). It stopped
working from one day to the next, no idea why.
I've searched the Internet up and down for the error message, but I
couldn't find anything useful.
I somehow managed to screw up my /boot partition. Now I'm trying to
re-install it by booting from a Debian installer stick. After network
configuration, I do this:
1) Mount the root partition at /
2) # for s in dev sys proc; do mount --bind /$s /mnt/$s; done
3) # mount --bind /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
4) # chroot /mnt
5) mount /dev/sda2 /boot
Now I'm in my "full" Debian system. Next:
# grub-install /dev/sda2
# apt install [linux kernel]
# update-grub
Error: Cannot find GRUB drive for /dev/sda2
I tried both the grub-pc as well as the grub-efi versions. I don't
really know what the difference is and how it works, but with EFI I get
a similar error (something like EFI directory not found)
BTW /dev/sda is an external SSD connected via USB3. I've been using this
setup for years to boot my employer's company Windows laptop as my
private Linux machine (not touching the internal SSD at all). It stopped
working from one day to the next, no idea why.
I've searched the Internet up and down for the error message, but I
couldn't find anything useful.
Andrei POPESCU
Sep 16, 2021, 12:50:05 AM9/16/21
to
On Mi, 15 sep 21, 05:49:01, Musbur wrote:
>
> Now I'm in my "full" Debian system. Next:
> # grub-install /dev/sda2
> # apt install [linux kernel]
> # update-grub
> Error: Cannot find GRUB drive for /dev/sda2
Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise grub is installed in the
>
> Now I'm in my "full" Debian system. Next:
> # grub-install /dev/sda2
> # apt install [linux kernel]
> # update-grub
> Error: Cannot find GRUB drive for /dev/sda2
MBR of the drive, so you probably want '/dev/sda' instead of
'/dev/sda2'.
Hope this helps,
Andrei
--
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser
Musbur
Sep 16, 2021, 8:40:04 AM9/16/21
to
Hi Andrei,
thanks for your reply. I tried both /dev/sda and /dev/sda2. I ended up
solving the problem by making a total of three partitions: A small one
for EFI, another one for /boot, and the encrypted main partition. Small
snag was that the Debian installer cannot be persuaded to install the
grub EFI into the EFI partition on the mobile disk but on the one in the
built-in disk. But that was easily fixed by by mounting the mobile EFI
partition, correcting /sys/fstab and re-installing grub and kernel.
thanks for your reply. I tried both /dev/sda and /dev/sda2. I ended up
solving the problem by making a total of three partitions: A small one
for EFI, another one for /boot, and the encrypted main partition. Small
snag was that the Debian installer cannot be persuaded to install the
grub EFI into the EFI partition on the mobile disk but on the one in the
built-in disk. But that was easily fixed by by mounting the mobile EFI
partition, correcting /sys/fstab and re-installing grub and kernel.
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