Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.user > #236304

Re: debian installation issue

Show all headers | View raw

On Fri 11 Jun 2021 at 16:57:35 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote:
> Greg Wooledge composed on 2021-06-11 15:07 (UTC-0400):
> > On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 09:38:37PM +0300, Semih Ozlem wrote:
> 
> >> How to check where grub is installed? And what is a friendly guide to
> >> learning about grub?
> 
> > GRUB should be installed on the *disk* (not on a partition) that you
> > intend to boot.	
> Not to detract from the wisdom of the rest of Greg's excellent reply, but TBC,
> this statement is religion at one extreme, opinion at the other, not fact. Note he
> wisely did not say "must", but "should". For most traditional (BIOS/MBR; designed
> for "Windows" PCs) configurations, it's probably prudent to put the bootloader on
> the "disk". For pure Debian installations, as opposed to multiboot, whether or not
> to install it on the "disk" really doesn't matter.
> 
> OTOH, putting a bootloader on the MBR of a disk on a PC designed for Windows is a
> relative newcomer to the world of booting such a PC. I've been installing
> operating systems on IBM-compatible PCs for more than 3 decades. Not once have I
> intentionally installed Grub on an MBR. In the dearth of instances where it did
> happen I wiped whatever caused it, and started over with
> DOS/OS2/Windows/Linux-compatible MBR code on the MBR. IOW, Grub can live elsewhere
> than on the MBR.

Can you elaborate on what your "DOS/OS2/Windows/Linux-compatible MBR
code" is, what functionality you get, and where you obtain it.
Are there OSes that would install it themselves to a new blank disk?

> A less innocuous error is not clearly qualifying the quoted statement to apply
> only to non-UEFI boot environments, which usually means an MBR-partitioned boot
> disk. On a UEFI installation, which requires GPT partitioning, the first sector
> normally contains nothing until near its end, where a disk identifier and the
> start of the disk's multi-sector partition table begin. No executable code is
> required on this sector.
> 
> With a UEFI "BIOS", the boot process begins rather differently than on an MBR-only
> system. On a UEFI system's ESP (Extensible Firmware Interface System Partition; a
> quasi-"boot" partition), there are no files containing the string "grub" in their
> name.

# ls -GlgR /boot/efi/
/boot/efi/:
total 4
drwx------ 4 4096 Apr  3  2020 EFI

/boot/efi/EFI:
total 8
drwx------ 2 4096 Apr  3  2020 BOOT
drwx------ 2 4096 Apr  3  2020 debian

/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT:
total 3988
-rwx------ 1 1322936 Mar  2 16:23 BOOTX64.EFI
-rwx------ 1 1206824 Mar  2 16:23 fbx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 1549696 Mar  2 16:23 grubx64.efi

/boot/efi/EFI/debian:
total 5228
-rwx------ 1     108 Mar  2 16:23 BOOTX64.CSV
-rwx------ 1 1206824 Mar  2 16:23 fbx64.efi
-rwx------ 1     126 Mar  2 16:23 grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 1549696 Mar  2 16:23 grubx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 1261192 Mar  2 16:23 mmx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 1322936 Mar  2 16:23 shimx64.efi
# 

Whatever grubx64.efi is, it's copied from grub-efi-amd64-signed, aka
grub-efi-amd64-signed_1+2.02+dfsg1+20+deb10u4_amd64.deb currently.

> Thus it seems to be a debatable issue whether "bootloader" is actually an
> appropriate name for Grub 2, as its primary purpose seems to be presenting a menu
> from which to select what kernel, initrd (if any), and kernel command line
> parameters (if any) to load into RAM to /continue/ the boot process initiated by
> the UEFI firmware.

I'm not quite following your point. Are you saying that the ~250 Grub
modules are just a waste of space, and that the while boot process is
carried out by the EFI firmware?

Cheers,
David.

Back to linux.debian.user | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

debian installation issue Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-06-11 18:40 +0200
  Re: debian installation issue Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-06-11 19:20 +0200
    Re: debian installation issue Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-06-11 20:40 +0200
      Re: debian installation issue Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-06-11 21:10 +0200
        Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-06-11 23:20 +0200
          Re: debian installation issue David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-06-22 18:00 +0200
            Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-06-24 06:30 +0200
              Re: debian installation issue David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-06-29 18:20 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-06-29 19:30 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-07-04 17:30 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-07-05 05:40 +0200
        Re: debian installation issue Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-06-12 00:00 +0200
          Re: debian installation issue Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-06-12 00:10 +0200
        Re: debian installation issue Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-06-14 08:30 +0200
          Re: debian installation issue <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-06-14 09:50 +0200
            [Off topic thoughts] Re: debian installation issue "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2021-06-14 10:50 +0200
              Re: [Off topic thoughts] Re: debian installation issue <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-06-14 11:50 +0200
                Re: [Off topic thoughts] Re: debian installation issue Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-06-14 13:20 +0200
              Secure Boot in QEMU (was Re: debian installation issue) Kenneth Parker <sea7kenp@gmail.com> - 2021-06-14 12:10 +0200
                Re: Secure Boot in QEMU (was Re: debian installation issue) "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2021-06-14 13:40 +0200
            Re: debian installation issue Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> - 2021-06-21 15:00 +0200
              Re: debian installation issue tomas@tuxteam.de - 2021-06-21 16:40 +0200
              Re: debian installation issue Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2021-06-23 09:50 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-06-23 14:30 +0200
      Re: debian installation issue Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-06-11 21:20 +0200
        Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-06-12 00:30 +0200
          Re: debian installation issue Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-06-12 09:00 +0200
            Re: debian installation issue songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2021-06-12 13:50 +0200
              Re: debian installation issue "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2021-06-12 13:50 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-06-12 14:20 +0200
                Re: debian installation issue songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2021-06-12 15:10 +0200
              Re: debian installation issue Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-06-12 14:10 +0200
            Re: debian installation issue Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-06-12 23:00 +0200
        Re: debian installation issue Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> - 2021-06-12 17:30 +0200

csiph-web