0

I have installed an Ubuntu Linux on a machine where there was a RHEL (from Dell)

At the end of the installation I got a message that GRUB2 could not be installed. So I booted into a Live Linux (from USB) in order to reinstall GRUB afterwards - following lots of suggestions found on the internet. None helps.

My setup are two 1TB disks with a RAID1 configuration. And the partitions can be seen below. I think due to the the RAID1 setup, the /dev/sda5 has 3 subpartitions which I used for the installation as follows:

  • / mounted to /dev/mapper/rhel-root as xfs journaling system
  • /home/ mounted to /dev/mapper/rhel-home as xfs journaling system
  • swap is mounted at /dev/mapper/rhel-swap

I am at my wits end - where should GRUB be installed in the first place? And how will I achieve this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Further details:

  • The output of my sudo fdisk -l can be found here: http://pastebin.com/BUJuUyUq

  • Also, I switched from UEFI to Legacy booting

  • And lastly a screenshot of gparted ;-)

enter image description here

Improve this question
3
  • What partition table are you using?
    – khajvah
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 6:44
  • Also, did you configure partitions manually while installing ubuntu?
    – khajvah
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 6:48
  • No, I left the partitions as they were, @khajvah
    – dmeu
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

As it is hard to understand exactly what is the cause of your problem, I will take a guess. I guess, you are using GPT partition scheme, as your hard drive is pretty large and it used to be UEFI based.

Check this out. And a quote from the link:

While GPT support on BIOS systems is theoretically possible it sometimes isn't practical and other times there are complete incompatibilities. Technically the BIOS is only supposed to execute the code on the MBR, therefore leaving the possibility of differing partitioning schemes... However a BIOS may do additional checks including: checking a MBR's integrity, and possibly even for a MBR partition table (though usually only the first partition). If this is a case, a number of workarounds exist that may be able to repair the problem (listed below).

You have a few solutions:

  1. Delete everything and use MBR table (this will delete all your files). According to google, it does support 2TB hard drives.
  2. Try to get it work with GPT(here is a link for that). Basically, you need an additional partition and maybe some more hacks.
  3. Enable UEFI and use UEFI-based system (I would choose this).
Improve this answer
8
  • Ok, thanks I will go trhough this and try to understand and act accordingly. First things first, MBR, GPT and UEFI are three different approaches to tell the computer where to boot?
    – dmeu
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:08
  • 1
    @dmeu UEFI is a replacement to BIOS. MBR and GPT are partitioning schemes. They kind of store information about partitions (so the booting depends on it). For UEFI based systems, GPT partitioning scheme is required. GPT is actually part of UEFI specifications.
    – khajvah
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:15
  • For non-UEFI systems, GPT is supported but you need an additional partition and (maybe) some additional stuff(unfortunately I don't have any experience in this).
    – khajvah
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:18
  • I am surprised ubuntu didn't deal with this or at least tell you about the issues with GPT/BIOS.
    – khajvah
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:22
  • Ok, thanks for all the info. Yes, I am also a bit angry that it wouldnt complain if a boot-partition is missing. It was first on UEFI, but it clearly failed to add itself to the UEFI partition in this case. I try now in 'legacy' mode and see what I can do
    – dmeu
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 7:25

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .