Thanks for the help on gdisk. I found both /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3 are mbr and not gpt partitions. The weird thing was when setting these disks up fdisk offered to go into gpt hybrid as one of its menu choices. I didn't go in there thinking that /dev/sda was already gpt. -- Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." Ed Howdershelt 1940.
On Mon, 27 May 2024, Michael wrote: > We have the following IDs associated with block devices and their filesystem: > > 1. Partition type. For example the ESP with partition type 'ef00', has the > GPT UID: > > Partition GUID code: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B (EFI system > partition) > > You can check this if you launch gdisk, press i, followed by the number of a > partition, e.g. 1 for your ESP. This is the discoverable partition GUID > string and is the same for all ESP type partitions. > > 2. There is also a unique ID stored in the GPT for each partition, this is > different to the partition GUID code above: > > Partition unique GUID: a different 32 long character string, also in groups of > 8-4-4-4-12 characters. > > This is the long string used by the efibootmgr to identify the ESP. If you > have more than disk and each disk has its own ESP, the efibootmgr will list > them all with their unique 32 character partition GUID. > > If your efibootmgr incantation does not show the GUID of your ESP, then the > installation of GRUB is incorrect. Use the options I mentioned in my previous > message. > > 3. There is the filesystem UUID, unique to each filesystem. For a FAT > formatted partition this will be 4-4 (8 character long). Typically this is > used in fstab. > > There's also a disk GUID, but this does not affect what you're trying to do > here. > > The standards and landscape of different partitions, their mountpoint and > bootloaders has changed over the years. What the Handbook provides reflects > the current state of affairs. > > Please read these relatively recent news items as they may affect how you > install a binary kernel and initramfs (I don't use this kernel here to know > its nuances): > > https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2024-03-12-debianutils-installkernel.html > > https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2024-05-17-dracut-ext-kmods.html > > > On Monday, 27 May 2024 15:32:40 BST Jude DaShiell wrote: > > None of the uid's for sda1 sda2 and sda3 are displayed in efibootmgr. > > /dev/sda1 is vfat and /dev/sda3 is xfs. > > > > > > -- > > Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> > > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: > > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. > > Please use in that order." > > Ed Howdershelt 1940. > > > > On Mon, 27 May 2024, Michael wrote: > > > The command: > > > > > > lsblk -f > > > > > > will reveal the UUID of the respective partitions. This is normally used > > > in your fstab, unless you created this manually, in which case you can > > > use logical names or filesystem labels. > > > > > > The efibootmgr will display the partition UUID where the .efi executable > > > resides. > > > > > > You can check which block device has the same partition UUID with: > > > > > > lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,PARTTYPENAME,PARTUUID > > > > > > Note: the partition UUID is different to the partition type UUID. > > > > > > You probably need to be explicit where the ESP mountpoint is, when you > > > install grub; e.g.: > > > > > > grub-install --efi-directory=/efi /dev/sda > > > > > > You may in addition need to specify where the '--boot-directory' is. Best > > > you check this page to compare against the contents of your /efi and > > > /boot, in case you missed any steps: > > > > > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB#UEFI_with_GPT > > > > > > On Monday, 27 May 2024 14:05:49 BST Jude DaShiell wrote: > > > > grub-update found boot partition in /dev/sda3. The problem I now have > > > > is > > > > I cannot boot into gentoo. > > > > The efibootmgr program on original system shows no available gentoo boot > > > > drive and has lots of hex output so I can't locate /dev/sda3 in > > > > efibootmgr > > > > and all gentoo partitions I created have been changed to conform to the > > > > discoverable standard mentioned in the handbook. > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> > > > > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: > > > > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. > > > > Please use in that order." > > > > Ed Howdershelt 1940. > > > > > > > > On Mon, 27 May 2024, Jude DaShiell wrote: > > > > > I think I fixed the problem by putting all of the boot stuff into the > > > > > /mnt/gentoo/efi directory which has /dev/sda1 mounted to it. Reason I > > > > > think that problem got fixed was I repeated the steps and iucode steps > > > > > from emerge linux-firmware all the way down to emerge > > > > > gentoo-kernel-bin > > > > > and emerge didn't once mention it assumes I have no separate boot > > > > > partition. So I expect to be testing the system a little later today > > > > > after running update-grub on the existing system which has osprober > > > > > enabled. If boot partition is found on sda1 I will have succeeded. > >
