"Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration

From	Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	"Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration
Date	2017-02-22 09:30 +0100
Message-ID	<tdAtc-7g0-15@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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Hello,

I've just migrated my Debian testing/unstable install from a HDD to a SDD (too many custom configurations to go for a clean install). The hardware is a Dell Precision M4500 notebook.
The HDD is a Seagate 250GB 7200rpm, the SDD is a Samsung 250GB EVO 850. The total capacity matches exactly.

Here is how I copied the disk contents over the SDD.
I booted a live Ubuntu from CD media, checked with fdisk that every partition is starting 4K aligned and used the following command to copy the disk contents:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb status=progress bs=4K

Then I shut off the notebook, swapped disks and booted with the SDD. The result was:

error: invalid arch-independent ELF magic.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

I've tried suggestions from Google, e.g. live boot, install grub-efi-amd64, grub-install /dev/sda and so on. It worked once only, but I'm not even sure it was thanks to what I did. Please note that I have no EFI partition and the BIOS is configured for Legacy boot, not EFI.

I've also tried the advice here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18120835/debian-grub-rescue-invalid-arch-independent-elf-magic (first reply, e.g. reinstall grub-pc) but it didn't work, I still get the same error.

Any clues?

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Thread

"Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-22 09:30 +0100
  Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-22 14:30 +0100
    Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Eero Volotinen <eero.volotinen@iki.fi> - 2017-02-22 15:50 +0100
      Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-22 16:40 +0100
        Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-02-23 00:00 +0100
          Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-23 11:30 +0100
            Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migrationy Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-02-23 12:20 +0100
  Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Tixy <tixy@yxit.co.uk> - 2017-02-22 17:50 +0100
    Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-22 19:00 +0100
      Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Tixy <tixy@yxit.co.uk> - 2017-02-22 21:20 +0100
        Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-22 21:50 +0100
          Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-23 00:30 +0100
  Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2017-02-23 11:10 +0100
  Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-02-23 15:10 +0100
  Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-02-23 15:30 +0100
    Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-23 16:10 +0100
      Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-02-23 16:50 +0100
        Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-24 10:50 +0100
          Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-02-24 11:50 +0100
            Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-24 12:30 +0100
              Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-02-24 17:10 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-25 10:20 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-02-25 10:30 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-25 10:40 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Lucio Crusca <lucio@sulweb.org> - 2017-02-25 11:30 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-02-25 10:40 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-02-25 11:30 +0100
                Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-02-25 14:40 +0100
    Re: "Invalid arch-independent ELF magic" in grub after SSD migration Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-02-23 16:40 +0100

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