Hallo all,
I had fun shuffling some pieces on my PCs, so I moved a SSD with Leap 42.2 (gpt) from a PC with UEFI to an older PC with Bios.
Of course it won’t boot.
Is it possible to convert the SSD from GPT to MBR and make it bootable? Is there any trick or workaround, before reinstalling it from scratch?
Here is the output of sudo fdisk -l, from mint live:
Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 5CDBE2F1-68FE-4F83-AF47-A82E5FF9AEF4
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 610303 608256 297M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda2 610304 84502527 83892224 40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3 84502528 230211583 145709056 69.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4 230211584 234440703 4229120 2G Microsoft basic data
Gparted, from mint live:
https://s23.postimg.org/k6m5fsxor/Screenshot_from_2017_01_27_23_50_41.png](https://postimg.org/image/wy0bmb7gn/)
Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.
You can use “gdisk” to convert to MBR.
Actually, you can use it as GPT and it should still be bootable. But you would need to reinstall the bootloader, and possibly install generic boot code in the protective MBR of the GPT disk.
I’m not quite sure of the steps in “gdisk” since I have never done that conversion. You will have to go to the extended command set. I vaguely think it might be the “z” command (to “zap” the partition table – I think that offers a choice to convert it to MBR. But look around. And you can abort without saving the changes.
The “gdisk” command should be on the Tumbleweed live rescue CD, if you don’t have any other bootable media with it. I’m not sure if it is available with rescue mode on the DVD installer for 42.2.
If you zap the partition table you will more or less lose all partitions. Unless you can recreate the exiting partitions exactly with the same start and end points the data will be gone.
You can have MBR (legacy) boot on a GPT partitioned drive so you don’t need to change GPT to DOS
How I’d approach it is to boot to a live openSUSE rescue disk do a chroot to the drive then run yast to change the boot to MBR. But anything you do is dangerous and you should first backup anything important
It is also possible to make it bootable without converting to MBR and in multiple ways. So you probably need to explain what configuration you want to achieve.
Thanks you all, good to read that a workaround exist!
Leaving zap aside (too complicated), you all said that is it possible to make in bootable:reinstall the bootloader, and possibly install generic boot code in the protective MBR of the GPT disk…
to boot to a live openSUSE rescue disk do a chroot to the drive then run yast to change the boot to MBR…
make it bootable without converting to MBR and in multiple ways…
This is a bit confusing.
e.g. I have no idea how to do a chroot to the drive. This way? http://superuser.com/questions/111152/whats-the-proper-way-to-prepare-chroot-to-recover-a-broken-linux-installation
Do you know where to find a specific tutorial?
After that, I should be able to run yast to change the boot to MBR.
Yep that is the chroot procedure. Once you have changed root run yast just type yast follow menu to boot section and make change from EFI boot to MBR boot
Hi, I’d like to thank for your help. The procedure worked and the SSD is now operational.
Would you mind checking these settings?
https://s28.postimg.org/lltgumry5/o_Suse_new_MBR_Boot.jpg
The only issue is that, once rebooted, the original Suse grub screen has been replaced by the standard one (not a real issue…)
