Grub2Config PROBLEM -- Coder(s) Needed !!!

[wizard]

@fr-ke

Your file "Outptut-like-on-line563.gz" list all the drives and should not. Try this in a terminal:
parted /dev/nvme0n1 print

It should only list the nvme0n1 drive.

I then plugged in another msdos device, a USB stick, fat32, bootflag, and made it bootable successfully.

I think we'll have to discount my results since they aren't for a NVME. Would you send me your modified file and line numbers you changed?

Thanks
wizard

[fr-ke]

@wizard Sorry for causing any confusion. Output-like-on-line563 contains the result of 3 individual calls to parted "/dev/xxxx print > file".

Attached is the output of nvme0n1 as it corresponds to the selection in the script.

In .test3 I changed fdisc to parted in line 551 and in line 701. Script attached.

[wizard]

@fr-ke
@muggins

I tested grub2config-test31 as follows:
-HDD, GPT = OK
-HDD, MSDOS = fails with Missing boot flag

@radky , who has greater coding magic than me, has made some changes which pass both test above. Attached is grub2config-test3-radky.gz. Please test on your NVME systems and let us know results.

Thanks
wizard

[fr-ke]

@wizard Have you adjusted the settings in the BIOS? I have to decide in the BIOS whether EFi or MBR.
I did various tests on two other computers and HDD, msdos worked very well with .test31. Even if other drives were connected at the same time. No matter whether GPT or msdos

I'll test the new script straight away.

[fr-ke]

@wizard @radky I get the error Missings:Boot flag on nvme0n1 See error logs

The variable $myDRIVEDEV in line 551 has the value "/dev/nvme0n" and I think it should have "/dev/nvme0n1".

If I change line 551 to parted -l $myDRIVEDEV the script works for me.

I am attaching the output of parted -l /dev/nvme0n and parted /dev/nvme0n1 print for comparison

parted /dev/nvme0 print brings an error because it doesn't exist. See Errorlog

[fr-ke]

@wizard .test3-radky worked for me on an old computer. HDD,MSDOS
Operating system Bionic64, the laptop is from 2012.

I don't know if this is important, but I noticed that fdisk -l produces quite different output.

In Bionic64 fdisk from until-linux ver 2.31
In F96-CE fdisk from until-linux ver 2.34
In Bookworm64 fdisk is a link to BusyBox

[fr-ke]

@wizard @radky After further testing I discovered that with -test31 (parted instead of fdisk) HDD,MBR does NOT work for me.
Reason: grldr is not copied, If this is already present by chance, through many tests, then this will not be noticeable.
With GPTdevices this has no consequence.

[fr-ke]

@wizard

I'm an absolute amateur, with no bash scripting experience whatsoever. If I'm annoying please say.

-test3-radky:
part2drive is started several times:
from line 661 value "nvme0n1p2"
from line 771 value "nvme0n1"
from line 551 value "nvme0n"

For example, sda1 can never be less than sda. It's different with nvme drives.

"s/\(^.\..\)./\1/'" is a Spanish village for me.
But I suspect that part2drive is supposed to remove the partition names.

[wizard]

@fr-ke

If I'm annoying please say.

Absolutely not, we need members who are willing to experiment and learn, you're doing great. The only one working on this with real skill is @radky and I think he, like me doesn't have a NVME drive for test. I've ordered some parts that should let me mount a NVME on one of my old desktop or maybe laptops, but will be sometime before they arrive.

But I suspect that part2drive is supposed to remove the partition names.

You got it, issue is it has to do it differently for SDA than NVME or eMMC drives.

Am doing some more test today and will report.

Thanks
wizard

[rockedge]

I can't help much since I don't have NVME drive to test on. I was able to adapt Grub2config for KLV variants and am interested in ensuring the program works thoroughly. The fact it can not deal with ext4 formatted partitions is an inhibitor and would be great to get that ability included.

[radky]

@fr-ke

Please test the following replacement for the part2drive function in grub2config-test3-radky available below:

viewtopic.php?p=114209#p114209

---

Code: Select all

part2drive() {
	sed -e '/\([0-9]n[0-9]$\|mmcblk[0-9]$\)/! s/[0-9]*$//' -e 's/\([0-9]\)p$/\1/'
}

Thanks

[fr-ke]

@radky Test result attached

[wizard]

@rockedge

The fact it can not deal with ext4 formatted partitions is an inhibitor and would be great to get that ability included.

Rock, been working with G2C today and have no issues with it working on drives with P1=fat32 and P2=ext4 (Puppy).

Were you wanting it to install grub on the ext4 partition?

Thanks
wiz

[rockedge]

@wizard I might be using a different version in KLV?

Where I see the message is trying to use Grub2config on a QEMU VM running KLV-Airedale started from ISO. The virtual HDD is formatted to ext4 and has the boot flag set. Grub2config does as expected to the point of writing the boot loader where it stops with the message it can not work on ext4

[mikeslr]

Rockedge, will Test3-radky.tar work if the virtual HDD is formatted to ext3? Although there are other advantages to using ext4 rather than ext3, https://askubuntu.com/questions/44908/w ... erspective the principal ones are:

"Overall maximum ext4 file system size is 1 EB (exabyte). 1 EB = 1024 PB (petabyte). 1 PB = 1024 TB (terabyte). [As opposed to 4TB under Ext3, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/250 ... bit-system]

A directory can contain a maximum of 64,000 subdirectories (as opposed to 32,000 in ext3)."

Such greater capacity is hardly to have value when running an OS within a Virtual Machine. Ext4 formatting would be a perk; but not essential.

@wizard, I wanted to try this on my finicky HP Laptop. But I've gotten lost in the replies. Which version do I download. The boot partition, sda1, is formatted Fat32. And, IIRC, I just download the file, make it executable and run it before running grubconfig? Or something else? The reason I ask is that when I downloaded a file named Test3-radky.tar and extracted it, this was it contents:

Contents.png (24.46 KiB) Viewed 3561 times

So just making a tar file executable seemed wrong.

p.s. The "@wizard' above is in red because I "colorized" it. Have I missed trick to have such notation colorized automatically?

[wizard]

@mikeslr

Test3-radky.tar is just a report from fr-ke, the file you can test is: grub2config-test3-radky.gz.
If your drive is NVME you can also manually insert the revised code from radky a few post up.

p.s. The "@wizard' above is in red because I "colorized" it. Have I missed trick to have such notation colorized automatically?

If you start typing @wizard (or any other member name) the site will at some point offer you the name, when you choose it, it will be enclosed in "smention" tags which will make it red when you submit the post. This should also trigger a notification to the member that they were mentioned

Thanks
wizard

[fr-ke]

@radky @wizard

part2drive seems to be working now. I queried the return values at several places in the script.

whereto_check (in the original -test3-radky line 774) calls boot_part (line 557) with the value "nvme0n1".
and comes back with value "nvme0n11".

For the analogue “sda1”, “nvme0n1p1” should probably come back.

What exactly happens in the boot_part is too high for me.

[wizard]

@fr-ke
@muggins

Attached is grub2config-test4-radky.gz from @radky . My testing on msdos and GPT HDD results are also attached.
Please test on your NVME drives and report.

EDIT: The FTR error should be a non-issue

Thanks
wizard

[fr-ke]

@wizard I successfully installed with the modified test3-radky:
nvme,gpt
sda,gpt
sda, mbr

In boot_part, for the test with nvme, I manually changed line 567 DRIVEsd+=$LAST_BOOT_PART to DRIVEsd+="p"$LAST_BOOT_PART

I think if you were to insert a wide if e.g. if_nvme and alternatively add the "p" at this point that would be sufficient.

Despite everything working, there was an error at the end. But it may have nothing to do with the script because I didn't find the error message.

Log files attached

[fr-ke]

@wizard I posted quicker than I read.

grub2config-test4-radky basically works for me, but ends up giving an error message with the nvme drive.

[radky]

@fr-ke

Thanks for the log report.

Error: invalid numeric value e
Failed to register Puppy boot loader

This non-fatal log error is due to original grub2config code which defines the BOOTPART variable based on the traditional linux nomenclature of a three-character drive (such as sda) followed by a single-digit partition number (such as sda2).

The code (line 1761 of grub2config-test4) correctly selects a single-digit partition number for a traditional sdx drive but fails for your nvme0n1p1 partition by returning 'e' as the 4th character (and the efibootmgr utility generates the invalid numeric value e error in line 1768).

You could try the following:

Replace line 1761 of grub2config-test4:

Code: Select all

EFI_PARTITION=$(echo $BOOTPART | cut -b4)

with

Code: Select all

[ $(echo "$BOOTPART" | grep -E 'mmcblk|nvme') ] && \
EFI_PARTITION=$(echo $BOOTPART | cut -d'p' -f2) || \
EFI_PARTITION=$(echo $BOOTPART | cut -c 4-)

[fr-ke]

@radky everything is fine with these changes !!!

[wizard]

@radky

Test today on a eMMC drive installed all files to fat32 p1, then gave "Failed to register" error. See attached.

Thanks
wizard

[radky]

Test today on a eMMC drive installed all files to fat32 p1, then gave "Failed to register" error.

@wizard

I assume you have already edited grub2config-test4 as described here:

viewtopic.php?p=114381#p114381

After the edit, it would be helpful to see the log reports generated after running the updated grub2config.

For example:

1 - /tmp/grub2config-test4/grub2config.disks
2 - /tmp/grub2config-test4/grub2config-test4.log

Thanks

[wizard]

@radky

I assume you have already edited grub2config-test4 as described here:

You could assume that, but would be wrong My bad.

Did the edit and all works OK. Spreadsheet corrected and attached.

Thanks
wizard

[radky]

Did the edit and all works OK. Spreadsheet corrected and attached.

@wizard
Thanks for confirming your eMMC device and boot partition are detected and registered correctly.

[muggins]

Hello Radky,

I too can report success, after making the changes to line 1761 as you suggested. Unfortunately I've still had to go back to Limine
bootloader, because when I boot grub2, it keeps using "ghost" entries that point to non-existing installs from a previous attempt at
installing grub2. I've searched unsuccessfully for where these are installed, tried using efibootmgr to delete all boot entries, but
they're still there somewhere on my system.

[radky]

...when I boot grub2, it keeps using "ghost" entries that point to non-existing installs from a previous attempt at installing grub2. I've searched unsuccessfully for where these are installed, tried using efibootmgr to delete all boot entries, but they're still there somewhere on my system.

@muggins

If I understand correctly, you previously installed Puppy via Grub2, then subsequently deleted Puppy and/or the Linux partition containing Puppy. If this is the case, possibly your current "ghost" entries are referenced in residual bootloader files of the (non-deleted) EFI boot partition created by the initial Grub2 installation.

Maybe other forum members will provide additional guidance.

[radky]

...trying to use Grub2config on a QEMU VM running KLV-Airedale started from ISO. The virtual HDD is formatted to ext4 and has the boot flag set. Grub2config does as expected to the point of writing the boot loader where it stops with the message it can not work on ext4

@rockedge

If I understand correctly, Shinobar's Grub2config fully supports Grub2 on modern GPT/UEFI systems but also retains functional Grub2 support on legacy MBR systems. However, in the case of MBR installations, the current Grub2config (v2.0.1) does not install grub2.mbr but instead it installs the same legacy grub.mbr used by the venerable Grub4dos (which does not support MBR boot partitions on ext4).

In the following post, Shinobar suggests he would like to add support for installing Grub2 directly to the MBR (grub2.mbr), but it seems he has not visited the Puppy forum since 2021.

viewtopic.php?p=36605#p36605

Currently, for legacy MBR systems, Grub2config supports the following boot-partition filesystems:

MBR_SUPPORT_FSS = vfat | ntfs | ext2 | ext3

[radky]

Grub2config-2.0.2_Beta1 removed

Updated package available at the following link:

viewtopic.php?p=115435#p115435