Install of 12.3 won't boot after first phase.

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi!

I’ve got what seems to me to be a strange situation with GRUB2 during an install of openSUSE 12.3, on a 64-bit AMD based machine. I’m installing locally from a DVD burned from a ISO downloaded through the openSUSE site, md5sum verified, w. verified DVD burn. The file command identifies the ISO as being ‘openSUSE-12.3-DVD-x86_640110’. In the install, I configured for booting from the MBR of /dev/sda which is internal to the machine, to use a primary partition of an external drive as the root partition, and logical partitions of an external drive for /home and swap.

GRUB2 isn’t behaving quite as I’d expect, so I’m hoping someone knows for sure, exactly how GRUB2 is meant to behave with 12.3.

After I complete the first phase of installation of openSUSE 12.3, the first attempt to boot the system to complete the installation, fails.

The boot attempt ends with GRUB2 entering the “rescue mode”. As the mode is being entered, a uuid is displayed along with a message that the uuid doesn’t exist.

In the process of troubleshooting, I’ve discovered that in GRUB2’s “rescue mode”, the output of the “ls” command seems to suggest that GRUB2 sees:

  1. the correct number of drives, with the correct designations.
  2. primary partitions, both on SATA drives that are physically internal to my machine, and on a drive that is external to the machine, connected via USB2.
  3. extended partitions themselves (part4/msdos4) on either the internal drives, or the external drive.
  4. “logical” partitions (part5/msdos5 and above) within an extended partition, ONLY on internal drives.

The partitions contained within the extended partition on the external drive, are NOT seen. In fact, the UUID which was correctly identified and placed into the grub.cfg during the install, is flagged as not existing by the error message given as GRUB2 is entering the rescue mode. That UUID is of a logical partition within the extended partition on the external drive, so seems to confirm my interpretation of the “ls” output.

I’ve been using openSUSE 11.4 on the same machine for quite some time, and 11.4 can do pretty much whatever I want with the external drive. Since I’ve heard of claims about problems using external drives with a 4K sector size, I probably should mention that according to 11.4, the external drive has a physical sector size of 512 bytes.

I’d appreciate it if someone who’s sure of the correct answer to the following question, could answer it:Is what I’m describing, the way GRUB2 is intended to behave with openSUSE 12.3?

2

You could try
https://forums.opensuse.org/content/128-re-install-grub2-dvd-rescue.html

Or re-install and set grub like this
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Grub2_Project/grub2-set.png

You access those settings at the install summary ‘Booting’
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/12.3_install_complete/12.3_install/12.png

3

Of course not. Start with showing “fdisk -l” output and indicate which disk is internal and which is external.

4

I admit that I am not at all sure of the correct answer.

It looks to me as if this is a BIOS problem. Specifically, your BIOS is not recognizing the external drive, and perhaps you won’t have access to the external drive until the kernel is loaded.

If there is some free space on your internal drive, you might try creating a small “/boot” partition there (around 100M is needed). That way, loading the kernel does not depend on external drive being available.

5

By “external” I assume the disk is also “removable.”

IMO that could be a major issue unless the drive is mounted in your fstab(guessing that is where your problem is).

Regardless, IMO placing critical parts of your OS on an easily disconnected and portable drive is a questionable decision. Have you considered placing your <entire> install on your external drive and boot chainloading from your internal to external drive? There could be many stability, reliability and portability benefits with this design.

BTW - You’ll find Logical Drives within an Extended Partition, not more partitions.

HTH,
TSU