[opensuse-factory] Installation leaves two active partitions

older
[opensuse-factory] New Package -...

Larry Finger

12 Sep 2014 12 Sep '14

06:38

I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter. Installation appeared to progress normally until the system was rebooted. The BIOS reported that there were two active partitions. After rebooting the live system and loading gparted, it was clear that the installer had set the legacy-boot flag correctly for the new installation; however, it had not cleared that flag for the 13.1 partition. Recovery was easy once I understood what had gone wrong. This problem may not affect very many systems, as most GPT disks will use EFI; however, I had to turn it off in the past, as something got corrupted with GRUB2, and the system would only boot Windows 8.1. :( I have not yet taken the time to do a proper fix for that issue. The Bugzilla is https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=896369. Larry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

Show replies by date

Carlos E. R.

12 Sep 12 Sep

13:40

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2014-09-12 08:38, Larry Finger wrote:

...

I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter.

I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 13.1 x86_64 "Bottle" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlQS97UACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VGOgCfQ6ScT54WlIyxi8b1kAFSGc/I MhkAniQNqfOQqDgZsR0c8ryBHOzRYpyO =tuRK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

Larry Finger

17:02

On 09/12/2014 08:40 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

On 2014-09-12 08:38, Larry Finger wrote:

...
I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter.

I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that.

It is not exactly a classic BIOS. It knows about EFI and GPT. In my case, something went wrong with Grub and the box would only boot Windows 8.1. As that was unacceptable and I needed the computer back in operation, I switched the BIOS to turn off EFI boot, and reinstalled GRUB. Larry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

Andrei Borzenkov

13 Sep 13 Sep

17:18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 В Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:40:08 +0200 "Carlos E. R." пишет:

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

On 2014-09-12 08:38, Larry Finger wrote:

...
I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter.

I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that.

Classic BIOS has zero knowledge about disk partitioning. It downloads the very first disk sector and jumps to it. So what is supported is determined entirely by content of the first sector. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlQUfFQACgkQR6LMutpd94z1agCcDpHMCWJ+v1RR3HzFeH8ZL0fg hPAAnA+kehhMqQMNBCxJ7CI5LTVB6Dy5 =bvae -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- N��r��y隊Z)z{.��r�+�맲��r��z�^�ˬz��N�(�֜��^� ޭ隊Z)z{.��r�+��0��Ǩ�

Carlos E. R.

18:14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2014-09-13 19:18, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:

...

В Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:40:08 +0200 "Carlos E. R." <> пишет:

...

...
I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that.

Classic BIOS has zero knowledge about disk partitioning. It downloads the very first disk sector and jumps to it. So what is supported is determined entirely by content of the first sector.

I thought that code loaded the first sector of the first partition marked as bootable, and to find that, it just asked the bios. You mean that it is not so, that the mbr code has to actively has to search and find which is the bootable partition, and then load its first sector? Well, then it might boot from GPT as well... Then it means that I could use a GPT disk on my plain BIOS computer, and it will boot? I like the idea. I could then have a dozen bootable systems, selected by just changing the bootable mark on the GPT. I can have dozens of primaries on GPT... - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 13.1 x86_64 "Bottle" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlQUiY8ACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XQZwCfRcjxmLgOUBtbyNsDef+fMwf4 jmUAnjwcajUUKNRe17DbOEj0tuL4mpAt =zaiD -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

Andrei Borzenkov

18:33

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 В Sat, 13 Sep 2014 20:14:42 +0200 "Carlos E. R." пишет:

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

On 2014-09-13 19:18, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:

...
В Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:40:08 +0200 "Carlos E. R." <> пишет:

...
...
I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that.

Classic BIOS has zero knowledge about disk partitioning. It downloads the very first disk sector and jumps to it. So what is supported is determined entirely by content of the first sector.

I thought that code loaded the first sector of the first partition marked as bootable, and to find that, it just asked the bios.

No.

...

You mean that it is not so, that the mbr code has to actively has to search and find which is the bootable partition, and then load its first sector?

Yes.

...

Well, then it might boot from GPT as well...

Then it means that I could use a GPT disk on my plain BIOS computer, and it will boot?

Sure. You just need to install code that can handle this situation in MBR (or to be precise, the very first sector of disk).

...

I like the idea. I could then have a dozen bootable systems, selected by just changing the bootable mark on the GPT. I can have dozens of primaries on GPT...

Well ... theoretically UEFI specification defines "Legacy BIOS Bootable" partition attribute. In practice, you probably will need to write code that handles it yourself. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlQUjgQACgkQR6LMutpd94ynmACgyUaN9bM0rRnjDyEp/qC1kmFJ wHkAoLB+jICa/oMnbRs1g8cst8wY7yT3 =dOqe -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- N��r��y隊Z)z{.��r�+�맲��r��z�^�ˬz��N�(�֜��^� ޭ隊Z)z{.��r�+��0��Ǩ�

Michael Chang

15 Sep 15 Sep

03:55

On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 09:18:09PM +0400, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

В Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:40:08 +0200 "Carlos E. R." пишет:

...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

On 2014-09-12 08:38, Larry Finger wrote:

...
I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter.

I was not aware that a classic BIOS could boot a GPT disk - unless it works with a protective MBR and table and boots that.

Classic BIOS has zero knowledge about disk partitioning. It downloads the very first disk sector and jumps to it. So what is supported is determined entirely by content of the first sector.

Ideally yes. But we found a bunch of bioses did more than that, they will also check for active partition and do not allow to boot if that active partition is missing or has more than one set. I don't know the reason why the check is necessary from bios, it looks to me superfluous and unnecessary. Those flags are meant to hint the mbr boot code what partition is currently set as active and can be chainloaded. It's interpretation is totally up to the mbr and bios has no business to it. Regards, Michael

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAlQUfFQACgkQR6LMutpd94z1agCcDpHMCWJ+v1RR3HzFeH8ZL0fg hPAAnA+kehhMqQMNBCxJ7CI5LTVB6Dy5 =bvae -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- N?????r??y隊Z)z{.???r?+?맲??r??z?^?ˬz??N?(?֜??^? ޭ隊Z)z{.???r?+??0???????Ǩ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

Basil Chupin

14 Sep 14 Sep

07:44

On 12/09/14 16:38, Larry Finger wrote:

...

I installed the 20140909 snapshot on my non-EFI system with a GPT disk. I kept my existing 13.1 root partition, and installed 13.2 on a spare partition. The installation was done from the Live KDE iso that had been placed on a USB drive with imagewriter.

Installation appeared to progress normally until the system was rebooted. The BIOS reported that there were two active partitions. After rebooting the live system and loading gparted, it was clear that the installer had set the legacy-boot flag correctly for the new installation; however, it had not cleared that flag for the 13.1 partition. Recovery was easy once I understood what had gone wrong.

This problem may not affect very many systems, as most GPT disks will use EFI; however, I had to turn it off in the past, as something got corrupted with GRUB2, and the system would only boot Windows 8.1. :( I have not yet taken the time to do a proper fix for that issue.

The Bugzilla is https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=896369.

Larry

The same thing happened to me when I first installed 13.2/Factory some weeks back. I had to use SysetemRescueCD (v4.2.0) to remove one of the "Active" flags before anything would boot. BC -- Using openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.14.0 & kernel 3.16.2-1 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org

3521

Age (days ago)

3524

Last active (days ago)

List overview

Download

7 comments

6 participants

participants (6)

Andrei Borzenkov
Basil Chupin
Carlos E. R.
Carlos E. R.
Larry Finger
Michael Chang

[opensuse-factory] Installation leaves two active partitions

tags

participants (6)