Bootloader trouble during installation

Bootloader trouble during installation

[cinder88]

Hello again, all. I've been trying to install GuixSD for the first time with no success.
The installation process seems to go smoothly, but my machine can't detect the
installation. Since the installation isn't detected, I believe the problem is with the
bootloader.

For the bootloader, I am attempting to use legacy boot, not UEFI. I realize that
fdisk below identifies /dev/sda2 as an EFI system, but this seems to automatically
happen when I set boot to on in parted.

My hardware specs:

http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad%20X270/ThinkPad_X270_Platform_Specifications.pdf

fdisk listing:

Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: EA4E014F-6603-41FE-8C81-703E4A54D45C

Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048      6143      4096    2M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2       6144    268287    262144  128M EFI System
/dev/sda3     268288  33822719  33554432   16G Linux swap
/dev/sda4   33822720 168040447 134217728   64G Linux root (x86-64)
/dev/sda5  168040448 234441614  66401167 31.7G Linux filesystem

parted listing:

Model: ATA KINGSTON SUV400S (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                  grub  bios_grub
 2      3146kB  137MB   134MB   ext4            boot  boot, esp
 3      137MB   17.3GB  17.2GB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
 4      17.3GB  86.0GB  68.7GB  ext4            root
 5      86.0GB  120GB   34.0GB  ext4            data

config.scm:

(use-modules (gnu))
(use-service-modules networking ssh)
(use-package-modules admin)
(operating-system
  (host-name "alpha")
  (timezone "US/Eastern")
  (locale "en_US.utf8")
  (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda")))
  (file-systems (append
                         (list (file-system
                           (device "my-root")
                           (title 'label)
                           (mount-point "/")
                           (type "ext4")))
		 	(list (file-system
			   (device "my-boot")
			   (title 'label)
			   (mount-point "/boot")
			   (type "ext4")))
                      %base-file-systems))
  (users (cons (user-account
                (name "cinder")
                (comment "primary user")
                (group "users")
                (supplementary-groups '("wheel"
                                        "audio" "video"))
                (home-directory "/home/alice"))
               %base-user-accounts))
  (packages (cons tcpdump %base-packages))
  (services (cons* (dhcp-client-service)
                   (service openssh-service-type
                            (openssh-configuration
                              (port-number 2222)))
                   %base-services)))

the automatically generated grub.conf:

# This file was generated from your GuixSD configuration.  Any changes
# will be lost upon reconfiguration.

function setup_gfxterm {
  # Leave 'gfxmode' to 'auto'.
  insmod video_bochs
  insmod video_cirrus
  insmod gfxterm

  if [ "${grub_platform}" == efi ]; then
    # This is for (U)EFI systems (these modules are unavailable in the
    # non-EFI GRUB.)  If we don't load them, GRUB boots in "blind mode",
    # which isn't convenient.
    insmod efi_gop
    insmod efi_uga
  else
    # These are specific to non-EFI Intel machines.
    insmod vbe
    insmod vga
  fi
}

# Set 'root' to the partition that contains /gnu/store.
search --label --set my-root

if loadfont /gnu/store/bdzxdpdw25k8v6lz54clz42bilx47srj-grub-2.02/share/grub/unicode.pf2; then
  setup_gfxterm
fi

terminal_output gfxterm


insmod png
if background_image /gnu/store/z22x0dqcysrfx1zzyqyxgqlgl6pwi3m3-grub-image.png; then
  set color_normal=light-gray/black
  set color_highlight=yellow/black
else
  set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
  set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
fi

set default=0
set timeout=5
menuentry "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.11 (beta)" {
  search --label --set my-root
  linux /gnu/store/fqc2kg4lq1lz1ymk41080jzb5q90icg0-linux-libre-4.11/bzImage --root=my-root --system=/gnu/store/cp014zrg3ajwbfwsp1mp8pwbyiipgk2d-system --load=/gnu/store/cp014zrg3ajwbfwsp1mp8pwbyiipgk2d-system/boot
  initrd /gnu/store/0m59xnbipjnxhch9m99hvfqf7b0nfy0r-raw-initrd/initrd
}

As you can see, I am trying to put /boot on a separate partition. I tried having /boot
on the same partition as /, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Thank you for any and all help,

-Andrew

Re: Bootloader trouble during installation

[Adam Van Ymeren]

cinder88@hushmail.com writes:

> Hello again, all. I've been trying to install GuixSD for the first time with no success.
> The installation process seems to go smoothly, but my machine can't detect the
> installation. Since the installation isn't detected, I believe the problem is with the
> bootloader.
>
> For the bootloader, I am attempting to use legacy boot, not UEFI. I realize that
> fdisk below identifies /dev/sda2 as an EFI system, but this seems to automatically
> happen when I set boot to on in parted.

> fdisk listing:

> Disklabel type: gpt

If you're not using UEFI boot, try using a regular DOS/MBR partition scheme
rather than GPT.  Not all BIOS's will support GPT in legacy mode.

In fdisk I believe the command is "o" to initialize a blank DOS
partition.

Re: Bootloader trouble during installation

[Chris Marusich]

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cinder88@hushmail.com writes:

> Hello again, all. I've been trying to install GuixSD for the first time with no success.

Sorry to hear that!  Hopefully we can help get it fixed.

> The installation process seems to go smoothly, but my machine can't
> detect the installation. Since the installation isn't detected, I
> believe the problem is with the bootloader.

How far along does the bootstrap process get?  Are you receiving an
error message at some point?  If you can provide some more details about
the problem, maybe it will point us towards the right solution.

> For the bootloader, I am attempting to use legacy boot, not UEFI. I
>realize that
> fdisk below identifies /dev/sda2 as an EFI system, but this seems to automatically
> happen when I set boot to on in parted.

The reason that happens is because 'boot' is an alias for 'esp' in the
case of GPT (see: info '(parted) set').  I'm not sure if it's correct to
enable this flag on /dev/sda2, though.  In Guix's system installation
tests, which also use GPT, we enable the 'boot' flag on the bios_grub
partition, which is /dev/sda1 in your case.  Maybe you can try enabling
the 'boot' flag on /dev/sda1 instead?

>   (file-systems (append
>                          (list (file-system
>                            (device "my-root")
>                            (title 'label)
>                            (mount-point "/")
>                            (type "ext4")))
> 		 	(list (file-system
> 			   (device "my-boot")
> 			   (title 'label)
> 			   (mount-point "/boot")
> 			   (type "ext4")))
>                       %base-file-systems))

It might not be related to the issue at hand, but you might want to
double check that the labels of your file systems actually matches
labels you've specified here.  There are many ways to view file system
labels; one convenient way is to run 'blkid' (which is in the util-linux
package).

> Thank you for any and all help,

Happy to assist!

-- 
Chris

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Re: Bootloader trouble during installation

[Danny Milosavljevic]

Hi Andrew,

there should be a BIOS setup option that indicates whether the BIOS is supposed to use EFI (I think you can also set up boot cryptographic keys in there somewhere, so around there).

According to http://pcsupport.lenovo.com/at/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x270/downloads/ds120442 it has UEFI.

How did you boot previously?

> For the bootloader, I am attempting to use legacy boot, not UEFI. I realize that
> fdisk below identifies /dev/sda2 as an EFI system, but 

>this seems to automatically happen when I set boot to on in parted.

Really?  Didn't happen to me - but I have Libreboot so no idea what it does for UEFI.

UEFI is kinda annoying to use and disable.  But if it doesn't boot anyway, try setting the grub package to grub-efi in the config (and then invoke "guix system reconfigure config.scm") to make it use UEFI.  Can't hurt...

Otherwise I think you have to manually disable UEFI in the BIOS setup or something...

But I only used UEFI once on another person's laptop (customer...), so I don't know much about it.  I added Ludo, who more recently used UEFI, to Cc  :)

> Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
> /dev/sda1       2048      6143      4096    2M BIOS boot


> /dev/sda2       6144    268287    262144  128M EFI System

This should be a FAT partition.  If you want you can mount it and check it out...

If there are ".EFI" files there, it's UEFI.

> Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
>  1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                  grub  bios_grub
>  2      3146kB  137MB   134MB   ext4            boot  boot, esp

Yeah, "esp" for EFI system partition.

>   (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda")))

Try (bootloader (grub-configuration (grub grub-efi) (device "/dev/sda"))) if you want...