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Thread: [SOLVED] Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

  1. #1
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    [SOLVED] Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    Hi all,

    So I deleted my /boot partition. It wasn't exactly an accident, but I didn't think it would be as difficult to restore as it currently is; Pre-deletion I used gparted to 'copy' the partition onto a USB key, but for whatever reason I am having great difficulty 'copying' it back. I think it's the combination of having a full-disk encrypted system with dm-crypt, and the EFI bootloader. I'm using rEFIt.

    So far I have tried copying the partition back to /dev/sda3, which I was not able to do (paste function was disabled), so then I re-created the partition, (ext3), gave it boot flags and did a cp -r -p of the files to the directory, which didn't work.

    I have also used the alternate cd to reinstall grub, which also is giving me a 'no system disk' message at boot. Good thing I have this OS X partition hanging around...

    Can someone please point out what I am doing wrong? Thank you!
    M
    Last edited by MaddMatt; December 12th, 2008 at 05:13 PM. Reason: bad english
    64-bit Lucid 10.04 LTS
    GPG Key ID: 113828CC

  2. #2
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    Re: Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    [BUMP]

    Tried a couple of different things - figured out that gparted only copies one direction: AKA I can see the 'paste' option if I am copying from the hard disk to the USB key, not the other way. (why?) Really not happy about this... It's been 3 days since I have been able to log in. Lame.

    M
    64-bit Lucid 10.04 LTS
    GPG Key ID: 113828CC

  3. #3
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    Re: Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    Fine. I figured it out - it was a rEFIt issue, not a dm-crypt issue - copying the boot partition works, I just needed to let rEFIt update the MBR.
    M
    64-bit Lucid 10.04 LTS
    GPG Key ID: 113828CC

  4. #4
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    Re: Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    Quote Originally Posted by MaddMatt View Post
    Fine. I figured it out - it was a rEFIt issue, not a dm-crypt issue - copying the boot partition works, I just needed to let rEFIt update the MBR.
    M
    Just a clarification, that is not a rEFIt issue, that is a partition table issue. rEFIt just has the tools to fix the problem.

  5. #5
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    Re: Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    Thanks for the clarification - say, what do you know about accidentally 'blessing' the sda2 (hd0,1) partition with grub? That is to say - I accidentally installed grub on the wrong partition - the OS X hfs+ partition. It never actually put a /boot directory on it, but I am assuming it did something to the MBR, because it is now listed in REFIT (and I used the tools again to update the MBR) but I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of it. Its an annoyance more than anything, but I would appreciate it if you had any insight into it.
    Cheers!
    M

  6. #6
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    Re: Deleted /boot partition on dm-crypt system

    Quote Originally Posted by MaddMatt View Post
    Thanks for the clarification - say, what do you know about accidentally 'blessing' the sda2 (hd0,1) partition with grub? That is to say - I accidentally installed grub on the wrong partition - the OS X hfs+ partition. It never actually put a /boot directory on it, but I am assuming it did something to the MBR, because it is now listed in REFIT (and I used the tools again to update the MBR) but I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of it. Its an annoyance more than anything, but I would appreciate it if you had any insight into it.
    Cheers!
    M
    grub can't "bless" Unfortunately, it is not simple to remove the boot code from a partition.

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