Questions before installing Salix

[mimosa]

I suggest you follow what Didier suggests, without worrying too much about what happened before. This should make your Salix boot. If it still doesn't work, we can take it from there.

mkdir doesn't work if the directory already exists - unless you add the -p switch:

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mimosa[~]$ mkdir Downloads/
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘Downloads/’: File exists
mimosa[~]$ mkdir -p Downloads/
mimosa[~]$ 

Doing so is common practice in scripts, which should ideally cope well with the unexpected. In this case, something that was supposed to be empty was not.

[Themis]

Thanks, all.

I’ll try to do things from A to Z. So, first, I did that again:

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root@salix64:/# mkdir /efi
root@salix64:/# mount /dev/sda1 /efi

Then I tried what Didier has suggested me first, that is rm -r /efi/*, but it seems that I don’t have the permission to do so. I tried with sudo, for which I got a “sh: sudo: command not found” response.

Also, a question comes to my mind…

EDIT Anyway, it's easier to just install in legacy mode if you have issues with this machine's firmware (I have a Lenovo W520 refurbished and I ended up installing Slint in Legacy mode).

I can switch to Legacy boot, but in this case, shouldn’t my SSD be back to MBR?

[westms]

Hello Themis,

just two small interjections.

1.
I've seen, a partition from the GPT model were set up manually. When manually set up an EFI system partition (ESP), a trap lurks. This is because Lenovo has a manufacturer-specific ESP-GUID, which is recognized by the specific Lenovo UEFI firmware as ESP. This Lenovo ESP-GUID is BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22 or MBR-ID 0xED. It does not work with the general ESP-GUID C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B or MBR-ID 0xEF. I do not know if this deviation applies to all models. Which ESP-GUID or MBR-ID was used?

In an automatic installation process the installer does not know that it must use a different ESP-GUID or another MBR-ID for ESP. You can check which ID was used and, if necessary, exchange them.

2.
With all the shown here, where is the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) of 128 MiB size?
The structure on SSD must look like this:

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Protective master boot record (MBR)
----
Primary GPT header
----
EFI system partition (ESP)
Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR)
----
User partitions in any order as:
 Linux filesystem data partition, for /
 Linux filesystem data partition, for /home
 Linux Swap partition
----
possibly free space
----
Secondary GPT header

All of the partitions must be visible with one of the fdisk programs. If none of the user partitions exist yet, at least the ESP and MSR partitions must be visible. But from the previously shown fdisk output, this is not apparent.

Is it really ensured that the firmware is set to native UEFI mode? Could the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) mode, also called "legacy bios mode", be set?

[mimosa]

even in a GPT layout you still have a protective MBR. That's what allows you to install lilo in the MBR even if you have a GUID partition table.

Don't worry about the contents of the EFI partition any more. Just follow Didier's recent instructions for installing lilo.

In the environment the installer drops you into, you already have root powers - and a very limited set of unix utilities. So there is no need for sudo. I don't see why you should have a permissions problem, but in any case, it doesn't matter for present purposes: the legacy boot option.

[Themis]

@westms Here is what the BIOS gives me:

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UEFI BIOS VERSION                  83ET67WW (1.37 )
UEFI BIOS Date (Year-Month-Day)    2011-11-28
Embedded Controller Version        83HT27WW (1.11 )
Machine Type Model                 4236TE2
CPU Type   Intel(R) Core(TM)       i5-2520M CPU
CPU Speed                          2.50GHz
UUID                               45220d81-51d3-11cb-86e0-ce214e2309b7

(I removed the info about the System-unit serial number and all, I don’t think they’re important here.)

I’m not sure whether these info are relevant or not since we’re entering in a field I’m not familiar with (MBR/EFI and all).

Don’t know if what follows will be useful:

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root@salix64:/# gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.0

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 468862128 sectors, 223.6 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 7F10372A-2343-4E6D-8EA0-898AF2F83C31
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 468862094
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB)

Number    Start (sector)    End (sector)   Size       Code   Name
  1              2048         5144047     250.0 MiB   EF00   EFI System
  2            514048        34068479     16.0 GiB    8200   Linux system
  3          34068480       117954559     40.0 GiB    8300   Linux system
  4         117954560       468862094     167.3 GiB   8302   Linux /home

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-4): 1
Partition GUID code: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B (EFI System)
Partition unique GUID: FC8399D3-B838-4D09-A2D6-1A6009895EF0
First sector: 2048 (at 1024.0 KiB)
Last sector: 514047 (at 251.0 MiB)
Partition size: 512000 sectors (250.0 MiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'EFI System'

Command (? for help):

As for this…

2.
With all the shown here, where is the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) of 128 MiB size?

… No idea. I may have missed a command that would display it?

Is it really ensured that the firmware is set to native UEFI mode? Could the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) mode, also called "legacy bios mode", be set?

I suppose so. The “Startup” menu from my BIOS gives me this:

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UEFI/Legacy Boot            [Both]
UEFI/Legacy Boot Priority   [UEFI First]
Boot Mode                   [Quick]

@mimosa & All So I should change the Startup to Legacy, then do what Didier told me? I can try this. But talking about permission, thing is that I wasn’t allowed to delete the folder I created (the one Didier has suggested me to remove, actually)…


(Sorry for all that, folks. I had not expected this installation to be so problematic. I hope that it might at least be useful for others in the future.)

[Themis]

(Since my previous post was long, I choose to post a new one.)

I did what Didier has suggested me.
I’ve seen that Lilo should not be installed with XFS, so I chose the third option (MBR).
Here I am:

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Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.
Warning: Video adapter does not support VESA BIOS extensions needed for display of 256 colors. Boot loader will fall back to TEXT only operation
Syntax error at or above line 65 in file '/etc/lilo.conf'

Sorry, but the attempt to install LILO has returned an error, so LILO has not been correctly installed. You’ll have to use a bootdisk to start your machine instead. It should be possible to get LILO working by editing the /etc/lilo.conf and reinstalling LILO manually. See the LILO man page and documentation in //usr/doc/lilo-24.2 for more help. The error message may be seen above.

When the Lilo installer asked me what resolution I wanted, I selected the “auto” thing (or I don’t remember the exact name).

[DidierSpaier]

At this point, I'd suggest that you either post your /mnt/etc/lilo.conf so we can see what's wrong, or if it is too complicated just reinstall, this time in Legacy mode (set the booting options in the firmware's Startup menu to either Legacy only (first option) or Both in the first option and Legacy first in the second option.

If you choose to reinstall, as suggested by mimosa format all partitions.

[Themis]

Thanks. I think I’ll try a fresh install in Legacy Mode, just to see if it helps.
I’v set the BIOS Startup option to “Legacy Only”, but what I don’t understand now, is what I should to after I have formatted all partitions. I mean I’ll still have to use gdisk (because of the GPT thing)? Will I still need to create a /boot partition again, or will I just have to create my 3 partitions (swap, root and /home)?

[DidierSpaier]

Just use the proposed tool for partitioning, and only create your three partitions.

[Themis]

It’s installing.
I formatted the SSD again, then created my 3 partitions. Now I’m on the “Install Lilo” screen. Should I try to install it via the “simple” way, or should I skip (“safe” option) its installation for now?