Subject: Re: bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2019 04:33:22 +0200

Znavko,

[email-masked] wrote:
> I have another laptop (Lenovo G50-30) where Guix works on this 
> partition layout I've made manually:
>
> # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> ...

^ You removed the most important part, please don't do this on 
help lists.

Still, we can tell that this is an ‘mbr’ layout:

> Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
> /dev/sda1            2048 230000000 229997953 109.7G 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2       230000640 234441647   4441008   2.1G 82 Linux 
> swap / Solaris
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> But all the new installations on other two notebooks with the 
> same layout do not work.

They aren't the same: the one in your screenshot is a completely 
different ‘gpt’ layout.

Hence my unanswered question:

> Did you create this layout manually? If so, why?

Although now I suspect there was no reason and that the installer 
isn't to blame.

So you can either:

- throw away your existing layout and create new MBR disklabel. 
  Your partitioning software will ask you or provide an option 
  somewhere.  Since modern partitioning software leaves a huge gap 
  before the first partition, GRUB will nestle cosily into that 
  first unused ~MiB.

- keep it as GPT (it has some minor features MBR doesn't), and 
  create an additional GPT ‘BIOS boot partition’ as recommended 
  before.  It only needs to be a few 100 KiB, so I use the space 
  before the first partition (= before the first megabyte; turning 
  off ‘alignment’ in your partitioning software).  This tiny 
  partition is for use by GRUB, and GRUB alone: do not format or 
  mount it.

Both options work equally well, but you need to choose.

Kind regards,

T G-R