/boot partition necessary for arch install on macbook

I am going to be installing arch on my macbook( will be first attempt at this), and I was wondering if I definitely need a /boot partition, or will just having a / and /home partition work?
Also, I will still have OS X SL installed. So the partitions will be like this:
EFI
OS X
/home
So....? /boot ..... definitely do need it or do not need it ? Thanks for any and all replies.

What jakobm said. I'm triple-booting right now, so I only have 1 partition for arch, mounted as /. Have to use a swap file. Everything is smooth and awesome. If I were you, I'd have a / partition and a swap partition. Unless you really want a separate /home partition that badly.

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] Advice for Arch install with rEFInd dual boot Lenovo laptop?

I am trying to plan an Arch install on a new laptop for dual boot with Windows 8.1, but I know there is a potential to cause huge problems so I have been trying to read and learn about the hard disk partition structure and how I might install the rEFInd boot files so that I am still able to boot Windows once Arch is installed. (Unfortunately for some tasks such as updating the maps on my satnav box Windows is essential). However I am really quite unsure if I am doing the right thing in the way I am thinking about the Arch install so I would appreciate any help from experts on the forum.
The laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p which came with Windows 8 pre-installed, with the option to upgrade to Windows 8.1. The upgrade was completed without issue and I then looked into the question of hard drive partitions and boot. I had read posts on the Ubuntu forums about users who had installed Ubuntu on this same laptop and ended up being unable to boot Windows afterwards so I wanted to tread very carefully before executing anything which might cause really major damage. I had also read on the Lenovo forums replies about people who had replaced the hard drive and installed linux only to find that they could not boot to the recovery partitions, with replies from Lenovo moderators saying that if the partition structure had been changed then the laptop would have to be sent back to Lenovo for a factory repair.
On this laptop to get into the bios or boot options you do not just press the power button and hit an F key, but instead there is a special small "OneKey Recovery" button next to the power jack, which opens up with options for BIOS setup and boot options as well as normal boot or recovery. This OneKey Recovery button is therefore needed to boot a usbkey - the power button only allows it to boot to windows presumably until/unless a different bootloader and NVRAM entry is amended.
I have done all the initial ( safe!)changes necessary to move to the point at which I can execute the Arch install. From within Windows (switched off fastboot, and shrunk the "C:" drive to make space for linux partitions). I have also switched off Secure Boot from the BIOS, and made sure that Windows still boots up fine.
The current arch install iso (February 2014) boots under uefi just fine - and of course once booted I have access to the gdisk programme. That certainly showed the pre-existing partitions on the drive (8 partitions with partition number 2 being the EFI partition, and three recovery partitions!) with a GPT partition table, and it should therefore be possible to make the necessary new linux partitions in the now unallocated space on the disk that was freed up with the internal disk management facility within Windows 8.1. So at that point I created three partitions for a root partition (type 8300), a swap partition (type 8200) and another type 8300 partition which will become /opt in the installed Arch system.
In order to try and not make any changes to the partition structure I let the three new linux partitions be number 9, 10 and 11.
I am told that for a GPT disk it is a definite no-no to try to create more than one EFI partition. So I will need to use the existing EFI partition to place the rEFInd files and the kernel once I install Arch.
In this (Y510p) laptop the EFI partition contains the following structure:
BOOT/ - containing only boot.sdi
BOOTSECT.BAK
EFI/ which contains two directories Boot/ and Microsoft/
so EFI/Boot/ contains only Boot64.efi which is likely a fallback copy of the Windows 8.1 bootloader
and EFI/Microsoft/ contains a Boot/ directory - so
EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ contains loads of language specific directories like en-GB/
plus bootmgfw.efi (which I believe is the Windows main efi loader file)
bootmgr.efi
memtest.efi
The scheme that I am planning to use which I have previously used in pure Arch uefi machines, is that /boot is a directory in the root partition, /. That way /boot is an ext4 directory and will contain the kernel and initramfs plus the rEFInd linux config file.
Then I can mount the EFI (vfat) partition as /boot/efi and so I can then make a /boot partition under /. Then the EFI /BOOT/ directory would be seen in Linux as /boot/efi/BOOT/ and the Windows efi stuff would be in /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/Microsoft/Boot/ in which case I would presume that I have to make a new directory in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/ and put the refind stuff including the filesystem drivers there, and let the kernel go into the (ext4) /boot/ directory which would be preferred! However I am not 100% confident that this is what will work and I need to read more before trying to do the install. The thing that concerns me is how the system will handle the uefi boot process, and whether it would auto-detect the Windows efi file as well as the Arch refind efi file once the system has started up?
... and then there is the issue of the NVRAM entries and I am no longer confident that if I use the usual tools to create an entry (efiboomgr or bcfg), that I will get a successful dual boot system!
There is still a chance that I would irrevocably damage being able to boot to the Windows and Recovery partition boot options by messing up the EFI and/or the NVRAM so I have to tread very very carefully with this.
If anyone has gone through this kind of dual boot install with a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine using rEFInd for the bootloader, and can offer advice or help here I would very much appreciate it. I have another pure Arch system which uses rEFInd that works extremely well, but it seems that dual boot with uefi is a rather more complex animal than a pure linux system!
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-22 10:06:03)

vipin wrote:I have recently bought the y510p , im planning to install Arch , this is my 4th laptop , i had installed Arch in all the other 3 with no problems, but im a bit worried with the installation as this is the first laptop which has EFI , im a linux user for the past 6 years , i started with fedora , now i like Arch , mike documentation is excellent, i just had one question when i had grub , it automatically finds the new kernel when i update (grub.conf/menu.lst gets updated), does rEFInd also do that.
When there is an update to the rEFInd package you need to copy the files across to your ESP from the files contained in /usr/share/refind/ usually you need to copy the refind_x64.efi binary as well as the icons, fonts, and drivers directories. Since there is flexibility in how you configure the kernel and initrd files in terms of where they are located whether you need to do anything else when a new kernel update arrives depends on how you set your system up. If you have the /boot directory as your ESP partition which will then have the kernel and initrd files updated by default then there no need to do anything else when there is a kernel update. If the ESP is then at /boot/EFI and within that is your refind/ directory then that is where the replacement files go if refind-efi gets a pacman update. So it is actually fairly straight forward. If you configure rEFInd to look for kernels in some other directory than /boot/ then you may need to copy the files there after a kernel update but there is more information in the arch wiki about this.
During a refind-efi package update there are helpful files in the pacman output (and log) reminding you of what you need to do. eg for the latest refind-efi update you get:
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded radvd (1.12-1 -> 1.13-1)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd UEFI application has been installed at /usr/share/refind/refind_*.efi
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Other UEFI applications have been installed at /usr/share/refind/tools_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] UEFI drivers have been installed at /usr/share/refind/drivers_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Copy the efi application (according to your UEFI ARCH)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] and /usr/share/refind/refind.conf-sample to a sub-directory of <EFISYS>/EFI/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] as refind.conf and add an entry to firmware boot menu using efibootmgr
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] or mactel-boot (for Macs)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Icons have been installed at /usr/share/refind/icons/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Fonts have been installed at /usr/share/refind/fonts/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] HTML Documentation is available at /usr/share/refind/docs/html/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] More info: [url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd[/url]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded refind-efi (0.8.1-1 -> 0.8.2-1)
I hope that helps.
By the way you can also boot uefi using grub and in fact you can get rEFInd to chainload grub as a backup bootloader as an added safety factor and have both rEFInd as well as grub installed simultaneously. How that can be done is explained in the thread at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181906
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-25 17:41:12)

Boot partition corrupted on encrypted install, trouble repairing GRUB

Long story short, my boot partition got thoroughly messed up. I have an encrypted install with luks and dm-crypt. I have tried many guides for fixing grub and none are working.
Here is where I'm running into trouble:
I've booted an arch install cd, modprobe'd dm_crypt, mounted my encrypted root with cryptsetup, run arch-chroot, mounted the boot partition to /boot, run grub-install /dev/sda, and then grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
When running grub-mkconfig I get 12 instances of "WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning." followed by "done". Upon reboot I am met with the grub prompt.
Any ideas?

OK. Well the wiki is usually more up to date and more accurate. However https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot says it is OK to mount them after just simpler and safer to do so before.
I am not surprised grub is unhappy - it doesn't seem to have any entries at all in grub.cfg. I guess it doesn't even give you a menu? (I am not sure how it would make one.)
Did you remember to reinstall the linux package before generating grub.cfg? That's the only thing I can think right now would cause it to just find nothing at all. I've seen it generate entries which wouldn't work but it is acting as if there is nothing there whatsoever. What is the contents of /boot? (Not everything under /boot/grub. Just the top level.)
EDIT: I only asked what happened to /boot in case it suggested any deeper problem. "Corruption" could mean hardware failure, for example. Just wiping it is not that bad . Seen much worse lately, anyway. (You could have run it on / or /home, after all.)
Last edited by cfr (2013-07-31 02:06:39)

Unable to prepare hard drive for arch install

I am dual booting Windows 7 and Arch Linux. I have tried both the original disc and the 4/27 test snapshot.
When I start going through the install process and get to "prepare disk" section. I see double partitions:h http://i.imgur.com/TGxh5.jpg
sorry the big photo.
I have no idea why this keeps happening when I try to install arch. I have accomplished installing it before a week ago some how, but I screwed something up and had to reinstall the system again.
I tried deleting all the partitions and repartitioning them using gparted and the tool on the install disc with no result. I can easily install and partition the hard drive no problem. I am currently on a livecd of gparted so I am able to post to the forum. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
Last edited by Chr|s (2012-05-02 07:44:09)

alphaniner wrote:
It's an issue with the snapshot isos going back several weeks at least. If you don't know how to work around it, you'll have to use the last stable release.
Or, take the oppurtunity to learn LVM. The last snapshot I tested, LVM lvs weren't affected for some reason.
I've used the latest snapshot release and still have this problem. tpowa told me to use archboot. So I loaded it up. Saying I need a gpt partition, so I made it one and partitioned it with gparted and added a 512 fat32 partition, win7, boot, root and home. Still have issues installing it. I've installed Win7 like 4 times today, I hate windows, wish I didn't have to use it
I do have a UEFI mobo also and it is enabled. I also can't figure out how to install windows now since I get an error saying "disk is of a gpt format, windows can't install" so im kind of clueless now.

Boot problems with second Arch install on an IDE drive

I have two SATA II drives and two IDE drives (one HDD and one optical) in my box. I had Arch installed on first SATA II drive (/dev/sda). I changed the mkinitcpio files to load sata modules before pata, and that works okay. So, my IDE HDD is now /dev/sdc
However, I installed a second Arch onto the /dev/sdc (IDE) and it won't boot. It goes through booting process and hangs at checking the drives claiming that the /dev/sda3 has bad superblock. Now, this is really odd, because /dev/sda3 is a SWAP partition, and the init script is trying to run e2fsck on it.
How do I fix this? Should I simply (somehow) disable the filesystem check?
(Before you ask, I need the second Arch to build a LiveCD.)

It's correctly identified as Linux Swap partition. Besides, the first Arch install is still working with that swap partition reporting no problems at boot time.
Here's the output of fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160040803840 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4a424a41
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3825 7654 30764475 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 7655 7903 2000092+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 7904 13982 48829567+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7904 13982 48829536 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4fa7b7a5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 48641 390708801 42 SFS
Disk /dev/sdc: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xec0c2373
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 5 40162 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 6 136 1052257+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc3 137 1666 12289725 83 Linux
/dev/sdc4 1667 9964 66653685 83 Linux
And just in case, the menu.lst used to boot both Arches:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro vga=791
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
# (1) Windows
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# (2) Arch Linux
title ArchGem
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc3 ro vga=791
initrd /kernel26.img
# (3) Arch Linux
title ArchGem Fallback
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc3 ro

When is partitioning necessary for installing OS X?

My mother was given a 400 MHz iMac DV, 10 GB, that has only OS 9.2 installed, but I want to up the RAM and install Tiger. Do I need to start over and partition the hard drive?
I believe in some cases, OS X has to be installed on a partition if the hard drive is over 8 GB on some older iMacs, but I don't remember the details, and I couldn't find the information on my own.
G5 iMac 2.0 Ghz Rev.B Mac OS X (10.4)

The slot loading iMacs do not need a partition under 8GB for "X".
Before installing OSX make sure the Firmware is at 4.1.9! It's best not to even insert X disks until you're sure the firmware is OK. The Firmware update (if needed) has to be done with the Mac booted from the hard drive in OS9.
David

Basic Partitioning ? (For Tiger Install)

A reading of some of the tech forums at the ExPostFacto site strongly suggest partitioning as a preparation for installing Tiger. My only experience with partitioning is with FWB Hard Disk Toolkit, running under system 9.1 (as yet I have no experinece with System X). This may be a very basic question, but, if I use FWD HDK to partition a drive under System 9.1, will System X (after it is later installed) correctly recognize the partitions created while in System 9?
As I recall FWB HDK requires that it install its own driver on a hard disk before partitioning can be done. Is this any problem on a new firewire drive for later use for installation of Tiger?
I also have Silverlining Pro 6.4.3 which came with my newest hard drive that could be used for partitioning. Is there any advantage of this over FWB HDK? (I have experience using FWB HDK under System 9, so would prefer this other things being equal.)
Thanks for your comments.
G3 Beige mini tower Mac OS 9.1.x Sonnet G4 800MHz upgrade; 640 MB RAM

I have been using the two internal SCSI drives for years, and have mirroring enabled via the FWB HDTK.
I do not know whether FWB RAID Toolkit mirrors can survive the transition to Mac OS X. I have version 4.5, but have never tried it. It is not mentioned as a useful formatter on the XPostFacto site, but I do not recall it being precluded, either. Maybe you should try it and see if it works.
If the source drive (for system 9.1 and EPF) must have been formatted with Mac utilites (as you put it) then I guess I will have to buy a new external SCSI drive to hold the resident System 9.1 and ExPostFacto.
You have said that your Wide SCSI drives cannot be reformatted for use with X because they have been formatted with FWB Tools. I wanted to be sure you understand they can be. Mac OS X also contains built-in RAID software, but it has a quirk -- the drives are not supported and do not mount under Mac OS 9.
If you have the standard SCSI "Server" set-up with The Apple/ATTO PCI PSC card and the long internal cable, you are limited to the approx. three feet of high-speed cable provided inside the cabinet, and that external high-speed devices are precluded, because it would make the cable too long for reliable operation. But your Tower has space and cabling for three high-speed SCSI drives, if you count the standard "roof-mount" bracket over the power supply. You could also remove the CD drive or Floppy to gain drive space, or use the slower built-in narrow SCSI bus, internal and/or external.
As to installing the EPF helper files/disk, I am a little unclear on this. However, if I obtain a new external SCSI drive, I assume it will be bootable on the G3 internal SCSI chain and thus helper files will not be necessary? I though helper files/disk were only necessary to allow booting from a firewire drive?
XPostFacto performs two different tricks that use a number of files, the most obvious of which is named BootX, and a number of old and new extensions to support older hardware and normally-unsupported drives. I have sloppily referred to both scenarios as using "Helper Files".
A) To boot an unsupported Mac, BootX and the old extensions are first installed onto a Hard Drive, then the standard Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4 files are added to it to produce an old-Mac bootable System.
B) To boot a drive that has no ROM support (and would therefore be unbootable because its driver is out on the drive, and cannot be booted until the driver is loaded) a "Helper Drive" is used. This is accomplished using a supported hard drive that has extensions, BootX, and the driver for the "unsupported" device loaded onto it, but it may not have a full System. You boot to a tiny System that contains the driver needed to boot the real System from the "unsupported" device.
If you are going to use 10.3 or 10.4, it may not be necessary to have more than one partition for Mac OS 9 and Classic. It may not even be necessary to have a separate partition for Mac OS 9, since hard Disk journalling has greatly reduced the instances of Mac OS 9 and X stepping on each other.
Mac OS 9 and X can read each other's files, so your Mac OS 9 partition (or partitions, as you see fit) can be as small as about 0.8 Gigabytes. If you have an old 1 GB narrow SCSI drive kicking around, you can use that for your Mac OS 9 partition. [ Just get a rock to perform the doorstop function and put the 1 GB SCSI drive back into the Mac ]
I have seen a case under Mac OS 10.3 where the beige G3 insisted on enforcing the <8 GB limit on the built-in SCSI bus, But I am not sure whether that was an isolated incident. I believe Mac OS 10.4 and XPostFacto may have eliminated this restriction.

Is Solution Manager necessary for 2004S install?

We are wanting to install this on a sandbox. Do we have to install Solution Manager first or is this only related to the license key for the 2004S portal?
Thanks

Hi
You need Solution Manager for the key as you mentioned.
On the operation site it is recommended to have solution manager and especially diagnostics when using WebAS Java components like i.e. portal. SM Diagnostics comes with a good set of tools for root-cause-analysis and SAP support will also used them.
On the implementation site I do not think that you absoultly need SM, but I think that tools in SM will help you speed up the implementation. But here an implementation consultant should answer!
BR
Tom Bo

Booting from Realtek for image install

I am having the most difficult time trying to boot from the Realtek gigabit adapter onto our network so I can install XP64 from an image. I've gone through the Bios and changed the boot orders around but still noting seems to work. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

I am no expert at this so all I can do is to ask basic stuff. Can you boot the machine from a disk? Have you set the boot order to see the LAN as the first boot device? Have you checked the cable and LED's on the LAN connection?

[SOLVED] Setting default boot partition on Macbook Pro w/ no dual boot

I'm trying to install Arch on a new Macbook Pro 13", but I fear I've become somewhat confused by all the instructions in the wiki.
I have no interest in dual booting, so I left the mac's existing boot and recovery partitions alone and set up a new filesystem and boot partition. I installed rEFInd on the new boot partition and ran refind-install successfully. Installing Arch seemed to go perfectly as well.
My issue is that when I reboot the computer, it still tries to boot from the original boot partition, which fails because OS X is no longer installed. Does anyone have anyone idea how I boot from the rEFInd partition instead?
Last edited by whitebrice (2015-05-31 04:31:21)

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried deleting the original boot partition, but I still had my problem. I ended up wiping all the existing partitions and trying again with gummiboot instead of rEFInd. It works now.

Partitioning Advice For E-business R12 Vision Install Using OEL6

Hi,
I am planning to do a fresh install of OEL to use as Oracle R12 test bed with Vision demo database.
Not planning to dual boot. OEL will be the only OS used.
Unfortunately, after spending the past few days I still couldn't determine the optimal partition scheme for my install.
I have a desktop system with the following configuration:
I5-3570K
128GB SSD
750GB HDD
8GB RAM
I'm relatively new to Linux and as such do not understand much in terms of the partition scheme.
Awaiting your responses.
Best Regards.

A SSD drive is not bound to the same physical aspects and performance limitations like a conventional hard disk. However, it's news to me that you cannot or should not partition a SSD drive. Where did you see this information?
You can create a /var and /tmp partition, but I any unnecessary partition will complicate your setup for no good reason. You can also create a swapfile and thereby increase your swap space on demand if necessary, instead of using a fixed swap partition. Why do you think installing a /var and /tmp partition will make any difference for your self-study environment?
Your /boot partition needs to be on the startup drive, e.g. SSD drive. Your root (/) partition can be anywhere else, provided it can be accessed. Why would you use the SSD drive for root and put /var and /tmp on HDD? I can't see how +/- a couple of GB will make any difference on your SSD drive.
If you need advice about the setup of Oracle EBS you better post your question in the appropriate Oracle EBS forum. Regarding the OS and general database configuration, my previous response still applies.
Edited by: Dude on Oct 1, 2012 4:23 PM

Grub-install fails to install core.img to boot partition

I am trying to reinstall Arch onto a Dell Precision T3600 workstation, where it used to work fine, but I am stuck at the booloader step.
Details:
1. I have only one disk, partioned with gpt.
2. I am using Grub with Bios
3. As per installation instructions (preliminary requirements, BIOS systems), I created a 1007KiB boot partition at the beginning of the disk, of type ef02.
The partition (which is umber 5 in my partition table) goes from sector 34 to sector 2047
4. I mounted the root partition to /mnt, arch-chroot'd into it, and ran
# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sdx
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
5. I generated the /boot/grub.cfg file with the recommended
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Results:
when I try to boot, grub starts, but it cannot find anything to boot from and drops me into its shell.
Furthermore (this may be unrelated), when I take a look at the dis again (after rebooting from the install disk), I see that the gpt partition table is corrupted. Exact message from gdisk is:
Caution: invalid backup GPT header, but valid main header: regenerating backup header from main header:
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: damaged
Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong? The Installation manual is not very explicit on how to deal with the (very small) boot partition. Is grub-install supposed to create the core.img file even when the partition is not mounted? Or should it be mounted. It certainly cannot contain eveyrthing that goes into /boot (which is over 100Mb).
Thanks for the help

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
Your partition table is corrupted; you could clear it using:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd<x> bs=512 count=1; sync
Then use gdisk to recreate your partition table and re-install.
Alternatively, you could ask gdisk to re-create the backup GPT header from the main header: start up the program & press "r" followed by "d".
I had already fixed the partition table exactly as you suggested---sorry for not having been clear. It still does not boot.
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
Your partition table is corrupted; you could clear it using:
If it still will not boot, post your /boot/grub/grub.cfg along with the output of:
# gdisk -l /dev/sd<x>
lsblk -f
Here they are:
/boot/grub.cfg:
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then
set default="${next_entry}"
set next_entry=
save_env next_entry
set boot_once=true
else
set default="0"
fi
if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
menuentry_id_option=""
fi
export menuentry_id_option
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
font=unicode
else
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt3'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 74c69286-1775-44de-90c8-3834585da6b6
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 74c69286-1775-44de-90c8-3834585da6b6
fi
font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2"
fi
if loadfont $font ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_input console
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
set timeout_style=menu
set timeout=5
# Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is
# unavailable.
else
set timeout=5
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
### END /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
lsblk -f (sda1 is the swap partition, sda5 is the boot partition):
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
sda1
sda3 /
sda4 /home
sda5
sr0
loop0
loop1
arch_root-image /etc/resolv.conf
loop2
arch_root-image /etc/resolv.conf
Finally, here is the partition table from gdisk -l
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 8B675D08-1A4A-44D3-ADC3-A7763E331455
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 67112959 32.0 GiB 8200 Linux swap
3 67112960 276828159 100.0 GiB 8300 Linux filesystem
4 276828160 1953525134 799.5 GiB 8300 Linux filesystem
5 34 2047 1007.0 KiB EF02 BIOS boot partition

[SOLVED]Should /boot partition be formated in ext2 or ext4?

I used to format /boot partition in ext2 when installing Arch Linux.
Can /boot partition be formatted in ext4?
Is there any advantage when using ext4 over ext2 in /boot ?
I heared that ext2 is more stable than ext4.
Last edited by yuanzhi (2012-12-22 06:01:10)

You can use anything you like for a separate /boot partition, provided both Linux and your boot loader can read it -- ext2, ext4, XFS, HFS+, FAT, etc. Some of these filesystems do have limitations, though. For instance, since FAT doesn't support symbolic links, you can't do something like link a kernel with a generic name to one with a more specific name. I've seen some configurations that rely on such things, and they wouldn't work with FAT.
As to ext2fs vs. ext4fs specifically, ext4fs won't have many advantages; its journal and other advanced features will be of little importance on such a small partition. Ext4fs might be a tiny bit faster, especially if you've got an EFI-based system and are using the EFI filesystem drivers, but this effect will usually be so small that it qualifies as negligible. I'm not sure about reliability, but I'd expect that any reliability problems with ext4fs would be pretty well eliminated by now.
Personally, I've been using ext2fs on most of my systems' /boot partitions until recently. I've begun using FAT or ReiserFS more recently, but only because I'm using EFI and am loading my kernels off of these partitions. In this environment, FAT is better because it's the EFI's native filesystem, and ReiserFS has a speed advantage over ext2fs or ext4fs because of quirks of the add-on EFI drivers for these filesystems. These are rather specialized reasons to favor these filesystems, though. FWIW, Fedora, which uses a separate /boot partition by default, has been using ext4fs on its /boot for a while now.

Arch Install Disc Locking Up

After failing to "cp -a" my Arch installation over to a new HDD, I decided to just reinstall Arch.
I bought a PCI SATA card as I didn't have enough SATA ports for my DVD, old HDD and new HDD. Everything is working, I moved the DVD to the SATA card as the card is SATA1 and I want the two HDD on SATAII. I have to go through and extra menu to boot the DVD now but that isn't a problem. When I do boot the DVD is says "Loading Stage2 ....." and locks up. I tried GParted & Ubuntu discs I have lying around and they lock also. I did see (I think on the GParted disc) to use "edd=off" and that works. If I pass that parameter on the GParted or the Ubuntu they both boot fine. The Arch install disc doesn't ask/allow parameters does it?
I did get Arch installed again by unplugging the old HDD and plugging the DVD back into a "board" SATA. Then when installed I plugged the DVD back into the "PCI" SATA and the old HDD back into the "board" SATA, everything works just fine.
My question is, can you pass anything to the Arch boot process? Anyone ever get a boot disc locking up at "Loading Stage2 ....."?

miau wrote:If i remember correctly you have to press "e" in the grub menu to edit the grub parameters.
Yes... that is correct. But my Arch installation disc just goes straight into booting everything, there is no Grub menu?!

Trying to re-install my macbook

So - i followed the instructions for re-installing my macbook.
I backed up all my files onto external hard drive, i wiped my macbook clean, and i am trying to do the 2 disk installation.
Disk 1 completes, and then it asks for disk 2.
I insert the disk and once it gets half way through it comes up with an error message saying to try again. I have now tried 3 times and still no luck. I am even looking at the installation log to see if there is a reason for the error, but it is giving me nothing.
Any ideas???

You could have a bad disc. Check and make sure it's clean with no scratches on it.
-Bmer
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/boot partition necessary for arch install on macbook

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