[TriLUG] [SUCCESS] [eee] post-install, grub OK from external stick but not from internal SSD

[Tom Roche]

summary: the grub-install syntax that worked for me was

sudo mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --recheck --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

but no grub menu when booting from the SSD.

details:

<note on how I got here: The eee's factory Xandros boots quickly, but
is crippleware. e.g. no `ifconfig`, supwdat? eeeXubuntu is a real
distro, but I'm not yet ready to install it to the internal SSD, and
installing it to a USB stick made the SSD unbootable. At least, not
directly: I could only boot it with stick inserted. So.../>

Brian McCullough Thu Apr 24 13:45:44 EDT 2008
 >>> What you want to do is ( after resurrecting grub on the SSD )

Tom Roche Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 02:17:48PM -0400
 >> How?

I guess I shoulda raised the noob flag higher at this point :-)

 >> Is there a way short of restoring the factory install, i.e. blowing
 >> away the (fairly extensively customized) eeeXandros on the SSD?

Brian McCullough Thu Apr 24 14:45:38 EDT 2008
 > Sorry, I guess that got lost in the mess. I saw somebody answer this
 > one a few days ago.

Indeed, Joe Mack suggested

 > grub-install /dev/sda1 ( If I am remembering correctly, sda1 is the
 > correct root drive when you are logged in to the SSD. )

but that wasn't the syntax needed (see e.g.

http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20080421/054130.html

). For the benefit of the next noob to stumble down this particular
rathole, what WFM was

0 Boot Ubuntu from the stick, open terminal.

1 Confirm identity of SSD:

tlroche at tlroche-eee:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 4001 MB, 4001292288 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         300     2409718+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2             301         484     1477980   83  Linux
/dev/sda3             485         485        8032+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4             486         486        8032+  ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

Disk /dev/sdc: 4060 MB, 4060086272 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 493 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         426     3421813+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc2             427         493      538177+   5  Extended
/dev/sdc5             427         493      538146   82  Linux swap / Solaris

2 Run grub-install to a mount point *with probing*:

tlroche at tlroche-eee:~$ date
Sat Apr 26 10:46:07 EDT 2008
tlroche at tlroche-eee:~$ sudo mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt
tlroche at tlroche-eee:~$ sudo grub-install --recheck --no-floppy 
--root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /mnt/boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0)   /dev/sda
(hd1)   /dev/sdc
tlroche at tlroche-eee:~$ date
Sat Apr 26 10:49:03 EDT 2008

3 Shutdown eeeXubuntu.

4 Remove stick.

5 Power up, and boot sans stick and Boot Selector Popup, i.e. just let
   it run.

result: boots to eeeXandros! but without a grub menu, but I can use
the Boot Selector Popup @ BIOS time to boot to the stick. I'll post
about that separately.

HTH someone, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>