Bug 20543

Erratum

The step described above as ...

4. Select existing ext4 formatted sda1 (19GiB root) and sda2 (800+ GiB Home) for the new system

... should read 

4. Select existing ext4 formatted sdb1 (19GiB root) and sdb2 (800+ GiB Home) for the new system

Hi Richard,

Please attach /root/drakx/report.bug.xz from the new install's root partition.

Was this screen not available
http://docteam.mageia.nl/en/installer/content/images/dx2-setupBootloader4.png ?
(That's the screen https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_6_Errata#Retaining_an_existing_third_party_bootloader refers to)

Ticking the "Do not touch ESP or MBR" box there, would have prevented overwriting your MBR on sda without needing to power down.

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => marja11
Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools

(In reply to Marja van Waes from comment #2)
Hi Marja.

There are three files in /root/drakx/

auto_inst.cfg.pl
ddebug.log
install.log

Would one of those do instead? ddebug.log looks marginally useful but it seems to stop at the last completed task. The bootloader reconfig step couldn't be allowed to complete and none of the usual ways of quitting early would work, so I powered down (getting used to doing that:~).

dx2-setupBootloader4.png seems to show a pop-up window which I did not see. There was an "Advanced" button, but it didn't offer anything useful and looked quite different from the on in your pic.

I will try another install now and see if I can find it....

Created attachment 9127 [details]
copy of failed install ddebug.log

Sorry I had to compress it - 1.5MBytes was too much to attach.

I am in the installer now, at the "Bootloader Main Options" page.
I got here by using the "upgrade Mageia 6" option I was offered. It had likely spotted the partial installation on the external USB drive.

There are two buttons in the bottom left hand corner of this screen; one marked "Advanced" and one marked "Help"

The bottom right of the screen is home to the "Previous" and "Next" buttons.

Two drop-down selector fields are provided at the top right hand corner; one labelled "Bootloader to use" and one labelled "Boot device".

The bootloader selection list held only Grub2 on the first install but now offers that and grub-legacy (and lilo!)

The boot device selection list has only one entry; /dev/sda - my internal SSD with Mageia 5 and its grub-legacy bootloader - exactly where I will not be installing Mageia 6.

The Advanced button pops up a new screen offering tick boxes (all ticked) for enabling ACpi, SMP, APIC and local APIC.

The Help button produces a pop-up screen with all the help I need to do exactly what I want to do (ie. install Mageia 6 Cauldron from the sta2 iso onto /dev/sdb AND make it bootable). Unfortunately the advice there is not consistent with the current state of the bootloader installation facility [rovided by the sta2 installer.

Maybe I have an old sta2 image. 

I'll copy it again and try one more time.

Apology.

I was reading the bootloader advice from https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_6_Release_Notes#Grub2_used_as_boot_loader_by_default which was referenced in the context of https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20437 and appeared to be authoritative.

You have pointed me at https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_6_Errata#Retaining_an_existing_third_party_bootloader which I wrongly assumed was the same information. I see from closer reading it is quite different in that I know now I must make a leap of faith by pressing the "Next" button on a screen containing options which will wreck my system's boot drive and trust that instead I will get a second chance with a new "Advanced" button on the next screen.

I am very reluctant to try this as if I am wrong then I will have a bit of a mess to repair. I am reluctant because clicking off the bootloader configuration screen with the "Next" button seems indistinguishable from the method used for years to complete configuration and install the bootloader.

In advance of your confirmation that it is OK to use the BOOTLOADER CONFIGURATION screen's Next button to get another chance at selecting a valid destination for the bootloader, I will try again to install Cauldron sta2 to my external drive after first removing the internal drive.

Maybe this will put your mind at rest
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19949#c12

CC: (none) => zen25000

(In reply to Barry Jackson from comment #7)
Wow! Thank you for that. I would never have guessed the destination selection option would be spread over two screens. I will definitely try that on my next attempt when I have got my head around the requirement for a boot partition on an MSDOS-type disc. I reckon I missed out some important step somewhere.

As mentioned in my comment 6 I tried a fresh install where the external drive was the only one connected but it failed - can't remember exactly where - and I have been busy tracking down the cause of another unrelated problem for a couple of days.

It was a bit of a marathon yesterday but I have at last succeeded in installing the sta2 DVD iso image on my external drive AND I think I know what was messing up all of my earlier attempts.

The short version is that the sta2 installer DOES offer the appropriate destination drive as the default option for installing the bootloader if the drive meets all of the requirements of the installer.

That last condition is a bit vague because I don't really understand what was going on. My drive was fresh out of the box and unused other than to remove the fat32 partition and replace it with ext4 root and home partitions and swap, first using diskdrake and later gparted. At some stage in these operations, one of these programs silently slipped a gpt partition table onto the drive. Perhaps it was already there. It would be hard to tell at this stage. The WD My Passport packaging and "documentation" is silent on the subject.

In any event, the installer seemed quite happy to use this drive right up to the point where it is considered not to be a valid candidate to be booted, and therefore not offered as a destination for the bootloader.

I re-booted to the MGA5 desktop, discovered the partition table problem and changed the partition table type from gpt to msdos. My next installation attempt worked as documented and was relatively painless.

Does this mean that a gpt partition table on a 931GiB drive is both unnecessary and invalid?

I suppose we can close this bug unless you think that the bootloader configuration stage ought to have been able work with the gpt drive which was being installed.

Late Closing

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED