On 07.03.2021 20:19, Jogchum Reitsma wrote:
Hi,
Today I tried to upgrade a system which apparently hadn't been upgraded for ages: it still ran 42.3.
I did it he way I am used to: choose for a fresh install, and import the filesystem layout and mountpoints from the existing system. (It still puzzles me why the default proposition from the installer always is to re-arrange the existing filesystems on disk, in a way that is destroying all data on it.. Why not at least keep the /home partition intact?).
In this process I get the warming
The system might not be able to boot:
* A partition of type BIOS Boot Partition is needed to install the bootloader * Such a setup is not supported and may cause problems with the bootloader now and in the future
And I'm given the choice to continue or not.
The message as such is somewhat ambiguous to me: is a partition of type BIOS Boot Partition needed for the new installation, and is it non-existing?
Yes. You are trying to install grub2 to the first block ("MBR") of GPT formatted disk and this requires extra partition to store boot code.
Or, the other way around, does it exist and should it be deleted for a successful install?
Moreover, the message doesn't give a clue as to what to do.
Well, you were in expert setup, it is assumed you know what you are doing ...
This warning slightly resembles another one, for which I asked for and got help for the 10th of October 2018 (https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/533410-Warning-about-missing-bios...); there I decided to continue, and installation went without problems.
Therefore, AND not knowing what the installer wanted, I decided to continue.
But this time the installation itself went smoothly, but left me with an unbootable system: there is no valid partition found to boot from.
You complained that error message was not clear, but you yourself does not provide any better. It is impossible to understand what happens during boot, is it actual error message (and if yes, when it comes) or is it your interpretation of what happens.
Describe what happens after you power on, what messages you see and when.
The partitions on the disk are:
/dev/sda1 4.00 GiB Swap on Swap /dev/sda2 50.00 GiB BtrFS on / /dev/sda3 0.86TiB XFS on /home /dev/sda4 1.00 GiB FAT on /boot/efi
Why did the system boot on 42.3, and refuses it to boot from 15.2?
How should we know? You did not describe how your system was setup before. But as you have /boot/efi most likely old system was installed in UEFI mode and you performed update in legacy BIOS mode.
More important, what can I do to make the system boot? Preferably without touching /home...
Boot live medium in UEFI mode, chroot into your installed system and reinstall bootloader.