Ubuntu + openSUSE on one drive with GPT. How?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I have problem with booting opensuse 12.2 on my laptop asus k53sd. I’m already running ubuntu 12.04 with grub 1. Use special first partition with grub_boot flag.

Модель: ATA Corsair Force GT (scsi)
Диск /dev/sda: 120GB
Размер сектора (логич./физич.): 512B/512B
Таблица разделов: gpt

Номер  Начало  Конец   Размер  Файловая система  Имя         Флаги
 1     1049kB  106MB   105MB                     EFI System  bios_grub
 2     106MB   12,1GB  12,0GB  ext4
 3     12,1GB  66,3GB  54,2GB  ext4
 4     66,3GB  78,1GB  11,8GB  ext4              primary     загрузочный
 5     78,1GB  120GB   41,9GB  ext4              primary

After fresh install opensuse I’ve had broken boot. Nor one system can’t boot. Now I have working only ubuntu grub1 which can boot opensuse, but not so pretty as opensuse native grub 2. Any opportunity make grub 2 working?
Also on this laptop UEFI boot not working… I don’t now why but not one live-cd can boot in efi mode, only on legacy. Opensuse just write elilo and halt on this. As you can see on parted output filesystem for opensuse marked as primary but for ubuntu not very weird. GPT have to use only primary partitions?
Anyway I just want use grub2 from opensuse as primary boot loader for both systems

#2

Hello,

We too have recently experienced booting problems only a little different. However, we believe that what we have figured out -plus- what we have learned from ‘Caf4926’ might be of some help to you.

First a beneficial tool… Super Grub2 Disk - Rescatux & SG2D This and its forerunner have been immensely helpful to us.

The above will help you get into openSuSE IF necessary.

In openSuSE setup Grub2 with the following … as root:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Then install Grub2 on the first partion.

grub2-install /dev/sda

The above “fixed” our System consisting of Windows, openSuSE 12.2 and openSuSE 12.3 in a Triple boot system. The make and then the install got all three systems. We would expect it to do the same for you.

Now then, the above assumes that your disk volumes are labeled as ‘sda’, ‘sdb’ etc; In order to find out how your systems are labeled use… as root:
# fdisk -l

And then make the appropriate choice for your install.

Take care and Merry Christmas,
Chuck

#3

Do you use UEFI or legacy BIOS for booting?

#4

Well, to be honest, we never paid attention to that before. -But- as far as we can tell it is a Legacy BIOS. It is an HP m7480n Desktop with an ASUS P5LP-LE Motherboard. We purchase it in January of 2007.

Take care,
Chuck

#5

[quote="“chucktr,post:4,topic:85787”]

Well, to be honest, we never paid attention to that before. -But- as far as we can tell it is a Legacy BIOS. It is an HP m7480n Desktop with an ASUS P5LP-LE Motherboard. We purchase it in January of 2007.

Chuck[/QUOTE]

That’s nice, but according to the comment you made (post #2), it was obvious that you’re not using UEFI for booting. Thus this question was not addressed to you but to the OP.

#6

Yes. You can have up to 128 partitions. They are all “primary”.

#7

Yes, I know about but question rise because parted show as primary only opensuse partitions. First there I did with ubuntu gparted if I remember correct. I just weird. Anyway my question about boot problem I just thought that this may be important too.

#8

Yes, it is weird. In “theory” , you could create an extentend partition within an hybrid MBR and so have logical partitions with GPT. But those partitions would not show up in GPT headers - I don’t see how they could - and it would be dangerous and silly. You should try** gdisk** (I forgot the name of the official package again, but a more recent version - although an older package - is available in my repo as “gdisk”) or lspart to see more.

lspart - an alternative to fdisk -l
software.opensuse.org: lspart

It is not “Grub 1”. It’s Grub2 version 1.99

Also while using commands like parted, try to put "LC_ALL=C " before. the output will be easier to understand for everyone.

# **LC_ALL=C** /usr/sbin/parted -l
#9

Also for Ubuntu? Did you you install Ubunutu in UEFI mode or in BIOS mode?

I don’t now why but not one live-cd can boot in efi mode, only on legacy.

Somebody here on forums mentioned that openSUSE live CD does not support UEFI, you need full installation DVD.

Anyway I just want use grub2 from opensuse as primary boot loader for both systems

Could you please install gptfdisk RPM and show output of “gdisk -l /dev/sda” instead. parted is far too high level tool to be trusted. Also please show “df” output.

#10

Sorry, will read the comments more closely in the future. Just “trying” to be helpful.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.:shame:

#11

It defenetly not hybrid… I did partitioning with Gparted. On other drive with one partition no primary mark at all.
(

This is really opensuse oldest problem make packages there names are no equal to programs names, and search in yast never find them. Weird too.

You’re right. My current ubuntu loader is

grub-install (GRUB) 1.99-21ubuntu3.7


sudo LC_ALL=C parted -l /dev/sda
Model: ATA Corsair Force GT (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name        Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB                EFI System  bios_grub
 2      106MB   12.1GB  12.0GB  ext4
 3      12.1GB  66.3GB  54.2GB  ext4
 4      66.3GB  78.1GB  11.8GB  ext4         primary     boot
 5      78.1GB  120GB   41.9GB  ext4         primary
#12

Ubuntu install in UEFI only if live-cd was run in UEFI. But as I mention I can’t boot any live-cd in this mode.

I’ve used exactly DVD.

#13

I don’t know why. Did you to change the device priority just before booting (each time)? On some machines you have to do that, because otherwise they will boot in legacy BIOS compatibility mode and indeed, Ubuntu (CD or DVD) as well as openSUSE (DVD) will run the legacy setup, which uses MBR partitionning - AFAIK - in case of openSUSE, GPT partitioning (despite legacy mode) if the MBR is blank, in case of Fedora … and GPT in your case - don’t know exactly what Ubuntu does. Anyway, you are booting in legacy BIOS with GPT partitioning. Your EFI partition must be a binary (not human readable) BIOS partition, and I bet that’s what it is. I’ve never done that, and I can not help, but I guess you have to install grub2-efi as bootloader under openSUSE, certainly not grub2.

#14

GRUB2 does support installing on GPT. Also disk already has bios_grub so it is even possible to embed it. I would expect that “/usr/sbin/grub2-install /dev/sda” should “just work”

#15

Yes, you might be right. I think Fedora users might be more aware of this situation, because the setup uses GPT by default, even on legacy BIOS. (I do use Fedora, but never installed it on a blank hard disk).

#16

Hmmmm… Not to step on any toes… -but- we do believe that is what we said way back in the beginning.:stuck_out_tongue:

#17

No. Never did it.

#18

I still have this problem. Which step I should make? I’ve read article that grub2 have to support GPT without boot_grub. Or in this case I have to format firtst partition in fat32 for use GPT ?

#19

I am afraid you have to refresh everyone’s memory.

So am I right that

  1. you installed Ubuntu in EFI mode. Were yuo able to boot Ubuntu after installation?
  2. then you installed openSUSE 12.2. Did you install it in EFI node (i.e. booting from full DVD and getting ELILO prompt)?
  3. Did you adjust partition table manually? Last output makes no sense. Apparently someone (or something) changed ESP partition type to bios_grub and marked partition with ext4 as ESP. The former could potentially destroy the content of ESP and the latter cannot work.

So please - answer the above and describe in as much details as possible situation you have now. You may also try to run bootinfoscript (http://sourceforge.net/p/bootinfoscript/code/ci/e7fc7064677c9cdc7bff12c315bb4944f99da37f/tree/bootinfoscript?format=raw), upload results to susepaste.org and post link here.

#20

you installed Ubuntu in EFI mode. Were yuo able to boot Ubuntu after installation

I did.

then you installed openSUSE 12.2. Did you install it in EFI node (i.e. booting from full DVD and getting ELILO prompt)?

On that time ELILO just not started. Now I use 12.3 it seems working better with that.

Did you adjust partition table manually?

Of course.

Last output makes no sense. Apparently someone (or something) changed ESP partition type to bios_grub and marked partition with ext4 as ESP. The former could potentially destroy the content of ESP and the latter cannot work.

I did it by myself. Why because this was only way to fix boot. For now I use bios_grub on install stage opensuse, make red warning that partition for grub more then 3! Seems like grub2 can load itself it it more then 3th partition. For now I use grub from ubuntu from 2th partition.