Grub issue with RAID GPT after 12.04 basic apt-get upgrade

[CJNZ2011]

Hi,

I have an Ubuntu server 12.04 in a remote location that I am not able to physically access.
The server is running two 2TB drives in RAID1.

I ran apt-get upgrade and the system updated.
Part of the update led to Grub2 being updated.

The system asks where I would like to install GRUB as part of that upgrade.
Either: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/dm-0, /dev/dm-2

If I select any or all of these it says:
Grub failed to install to the following devices.
Do you want to continue anyway?
Writing GRUB to boot device failed - continue?
Yes No.

I selected No and then it looped through the above screens again.. and again.

Eventually after trying a bunch of things based on a few hours of Googling I selected Yes and the update finished.

Now based on info I got from various Google searches I think that the system will not boot. Though as I said above I can't do a test reboot as the computer is a remote location I cannot easily access.

Any ideas how to ensure that this is a working, bootable system?

Many thanks!
CJ

[CJNZ2011]

Further to my previous post, everything was working fine and booting prior to the apt-get upgrade grub2 error.

This is a standard Ubuntu server 12.04 install.
When I installed it I had to install to /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0 which required a little bit of Googling to find out how to do this. This may be why the upgrade didn't work?

[darkod]

The /dev/mapper/... device is usually a fakeraid device (raid without proper dedicated hardware controller).

On a server you would usually use either linux software raid, or proper hardwae raid. But in case of proper hardware raid the card does all the raid work, and to the OS the array is presented as a single disk, /dev/sda. I am not sure if some hardware controllers can show the device as /dev/mapper/... to the OS.

With /dev/mapper/... and the fakeraid, you need to install the grub2 to the MBR of the array device, /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0 like you did before.

Again, on proper server raid you shouldn't even see /dev/mapper/... but if you do see it like that my assumption is you need to install grub2 to its MBR, like you did earlier.

[darkod]

PS. With the system running you can always install grub2 to any location like:

sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0

If you want to call up the text menu selecting the grub2 location, you should be able to do it with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

Don't forget that in text menus you select with the Space bar.

[CJNZ2011]

Thanks very much for your help!


PS. With the system running you can always install grub2 to any location like:

sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0


When I issue the command above I get this output - which is probably the reason why the upgrade didn't work:
#sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: This GPT partition label has no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible!.
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: error: will not proceed with blocklists.


If you want to call up the text menu selecting the grub2 location, you should be able to do it with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc


When I run this command I get the same things that happened after the apt-get upgrade:

GRUB failed to install to the following devices:
/dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/dm-0 /dev/dm-2
Do you want to continue anyway? If you do, your computer may not start up properly.
Writing GRUB to boot device failed - continue?

There is no mention of /dev/mapper/anything

Cheers,
CJ

[CJNZ2011]

Oh also, the motherboard had built in RAID. So the unit is not using a dedicated PCI RAID controller. Just the motherboard controller on a new Gigabyte MB.

Therefore fakeraid?

[darkod]

Yeap, fakeraid. That explains the /dev/mapper/...
Since this is a server which usually means single boot (there is not much point in dual boot servers), it would have been a much better solution to use linux (ubuntu) software raid, not the mobo raid.
The general opinion is that for single boot software raid is much better option. I would only use fakeraid if you need to dual boot with windows on the machine because windows can't understand linux software raid and can't work on it.

But your current issue is not the fakeraid. It's that you have gpt table on the raid device but you didn't create a small bios_grub partition.

On gpt disks grub2 needs a small (only 1MiB) partition WITHOUT any filesystem, and which has the bios_grub flag set. This is because the gpt MBR is smaller than the msdos MBR and grub2 can't fit on it, so it needs the small partition to use as location for part of the files. You still install onto the MBR, grub2 will sort it out itself. You do NOT need to install it onto the small partition. The bios_grub flag shows grub2 where to keep its files.

Do you have maybe 1MiB on the array that you can use?

Can you post this:

sudo parted unit MiB print all

[CJNZ2011]

Thanks! That explains it.

Error with this output:
# sudo parted unit MiB print all
Error: Could not stat device unit - No such file or directory.
Retry/Cancel? C

So I tried:
#sudo parted /dev/sda unit MiB print all
Error: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk, as it should be. This might mean that another operating system believes the disk is
smaller. Fix, by moving the backup to the end (and removing the old backup)?
parted: invalid token: all
Fix/Ignore/Cancel? I
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sda appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 6056 blocks) or
continue with the current setting?
Fix/Ignore? I
Model: ATA ST2000DM001-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1907729MiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1.00MiB 95.0MiB 94.0MiB fat32 boot
2 95.0MiB 1903739MiB 1903644MiB ext4
3 1903739MiB 1907726MiB 3987MiB linux-swap(v1)


AND:
#sudo parted /dev/sdb unit MiB print all
Error: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk, as it should be. This might mean that another operating system believes the disk is
smaller. Fix, by moving the backup to the end (and removing the old backup)?
parted: invalid token: all
Fix/Ignore/Cancel? I
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdb appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 6056 blocks) or
continue with the current setting?
Fix/Ignore? I
Model: ATA ST2000DM001-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1907729MiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1.00MiB 95.0MiB 94.0MiB fat32 boot
2 95.0MiB 1903739MiB 1903644MiB ext4
3 1903739MiB 1907726MiB 3987MiB linux-swap(v1)

Is that enough information?

[darkod]

Not really. I don't know if you should worry about those errors or it's simply that it doesn't understand the raid array correctly.

The 'print all' option should have printed all devices, I was more interested in the raid device. Try this then:

sudo parted /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0 unit MiB print

Lets see if that prints the mapper device which is the important one.

[CJNZ2011]

Ok, sure here it is:

# sudo parted /dev/mapper/isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0 unit MiB print
Model: Linux device-mapper (mirror) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0: 1907726MiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1.00MiB 95.0MiB 94.0MiB fat32 boot
2 95.0MiB 1903739MiB 1903644MiB ext4
3 1903739MiB 1907726MiB 3987MiB linux-swap(v1)

[darkod]

OK, the good news is you have 94MiB before your ubuntu partition. You can clearly see that.
The bad news is that there is one fat32 partition taking that space.

In a linux only system, you don't need this fat32 partition and it seems it's not used. It's probably a leftover. Is it? And are you sure you are not using it and it can be deleted?

If it can be deleted, I would delete it and create the small 1MiB partition in that space. But I didn't install your server and I can't tell you 100% to delete it because I don't know if it's doing anything or not.

In case you do decide to delete this partition and make the small bios_grub, the procedure would be:

sudo parted /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0
unit MiB
print
rm 1
mkpart GRUB 1 2
set 1 bios_grub on
quit

Those commands do:
Sets the units to MiB.
Prints the partition list. MAKE SURE the partition you want to delete is still number #1 otherwise adjust the next command!!!
Deletes partition #1 (the fat32 partition).
Makes new partition with label GRUB from 1st to 2nd MiB, which means 1MiB size.
Sets the bios_grub flag on it (in case the new partition is not number #1 any more you will have to adjust this command and use the correct number).

After that the repeat the grub2 install command to /dev/mapper/... and it should work fine.

I repeat, all of this is under the assumption that you don't need that fat32 partition. Having the server remotely without physical access makes things complicated if they get messed up.

[CJNZ2011]

Thanks very much Darkod for the help!!


OK, the good news is you have 94MiB before your ubuntu partition. You can clearly see that.
The bad news is that there is one fat32 partition taking that space.

In a linux only system, you don't need this fat32 partition and it seems it's not used. It's probably a leftover. Is it? And are you sure you are not using it and it can be deleted?

I tried to do a standard install of Ubuntu server .. but I made a change during install based on a Google search to get raid working. So I guess I have a sort of hybrid system as a result.
The thing is that it booted fine prior to running apt-get upgrade.

Here is output from df -h:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0p2 1.8T 15G 1.7T 1% /
udev 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
tmpfs 769M 368K 769M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /run/shm
/dev/mapper/isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0p1 94M 1.0K 94M 1% /boot/efi

My only worry is that isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0p1 is the fat32 partition and is mounted.. but there is nothing in it. So I guess that means I can safely remove it?

[darkod]

Uhh, I can't really tell you for sure. I was afraid it will show up as efi partition. In EFI boot you need to have one small fat32 partition usually at the start of the disk. But in case you are using efi boot it should not be empty I guess.

I haven't worked with efi yet. If you are using efi boot chances are deleting the partition will mess up your system.

Can you post the content of your /boot/grub? While you are at it, post the content of /boot/efi too.

ls /boot/grub
ls /boot/efi

The grub packages for the legacy and efi boot are different. grub-pc is for legacy, grub-efi for efi boot. Checking which package you have installed might point which version of the boot you are running.

If I remember correctly the apt command to check for packages is like:

sudo apt-cache show <package_name>

It will show the latest version available in the repository and whether it's installed or not. You can make the check for both grub-pc and grub-efi.

[CJNZ2011]

Can you post the content of your /boot/grub? While you are at it, post the content of /boot/efi too.

ls /boot/grub
ls /boot/efi


# ls -l /boot/grub/
total 4356
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7368 Jan 8 08:58 915resolution.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10420 Jan 8 08:58 acpi.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1848 Jan 8 08:58 adler32.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4644 Jan 8 08:58 affs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5092 Jan 8 08:58 afs_be.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4928 Jan 8 08:58 afs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132 Jan 8 08:58 aout.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8184 Jan 8 08:58 ata.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2276 Jan 8 08:58 ata_pthru.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4236 Jan 8 08:58 at_keyboard.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5004 Jan 8 08:58 befs_be.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4832 Jan 8 08:58 befs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4780 Jan 8 08:58 biosdisk.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2560 Jan 8 08:58 bitmap.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3084 Jan 8 08:58 bitmap_scale.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2192 Jan 8 08:58 blocklist.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Jan 8 08:58 boot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2636 Jan 8 08:58 boot.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27992 Jan 8 08:58 bsd.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13588 Jan 8 08:58 btrfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2032 Jan 8 08:58 bufio.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2428 Jan 8 08:58 cat.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Jan 8 08:58 cdboot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2652 Jan 8 08:58 chain.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1720 Jan 8 08:58 cmostest.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2136 Jan 8 08:58 cmp.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2830 Jan 8 08:58 command.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2368 Jan 8 08:58 configfile.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27010 Jan 8 08:58 core.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2940 Jan 8 08:58 cpio.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1684 Jan 8 08:58 cpuid.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 842 Jan 8 08:58 crypto.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4464 Jan 8 08:58 crypto.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4212 Jan 8 08:58 cs5536.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1952 Jan 8 08:58 datehook.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2336 Jan 8 08:58 date.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1353 Jan 8 08:58 datetime.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 149 Jan 7 12:14 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Jan 8 08:58 diskboot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1968 Jan 8 08:58 dm_nv.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5576 Jan 8 08:58 drivemap.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2108 Jan 8 08:58 echo.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7408 Jan 8 08:58 efiemu32.o
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11089 Jan 8 08:58 efiemu64.o
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24580 Jan 8 08:58 efiemu.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4632 Jan 8 08:58 elf.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1700 Jan 8 08:58 example_functional_test.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5912 Jan 8 08:58 ext2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4572 Jan 8 08:58 extcmd.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6112 Jan 8 08:58 fat.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11976 Jan 8 08:58 font.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2892 Jan 8 08:58 fshelp.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 149 Jan 8 08:58 fs.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2556 Jan 8 08:58 functional_test.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Jan 8 08:58 g2hdr.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1824 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_arcfour.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8308 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_blowfish.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34668 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_camellia.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17412 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_cast5.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3088 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_crc.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19440 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_des.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3304 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_md4.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3988 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_md5.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2632 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_rfc2268.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19236 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_rijndael.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8752 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_rmd160.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16740 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_seed.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18092 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_serpent.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8856 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_sha1.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3660 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_sha256.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5868 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_sha512.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11916 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_tiger.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39688 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_twofish.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24712 Jan 8 08:58 gcry_whirlpool.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4012 Jan 8 08:58 gettext.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 699 Nov 29 11:00 gfxblacklist.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32992 Jan 8 08:58 gfxmenu.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11984 Jan 8 08:58 gfxterm.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3780 Jan 8 08:58 gptsync.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10240 Jan 8 08:58 grldr.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 7097 Jan 8 09:00 grub.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Jan 7 11:24 grubenv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 8 08:58 gzio.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4076 Jan 8 08:58 halt.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5136 Jan 8 08:58 hashsum.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7404 Jan 8 08:58 hdparm.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1292 Jan 8 08:58 hello.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2548 Jan 8 08:58 help.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3296 Jan 8 08:58 hexdump.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6136 Jan 8 08:58 hfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6024 Jan 8 08:58 hfsplus.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38972 Jan 8 08:58 hwmatch.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2928 Jan 8 08:58 iorw.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6344 Jan 8 08:58 iso9660.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6212 Jan 8 08:58 jfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5908 Jan 8 08:58 jpeg.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30168 Jan 8 08:58 kernel.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4588 Jan 8 08:58 keylayouts.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2104 Jan 8 08:58 keystatus.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27668 Jan 8 08:58 legacycfg.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5768 Jan 8 08:58 linux16.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10184 Jan 8 08:58 linux.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Jan 8 08:58 lnxboot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 87 Jan 8 08:58 load.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5756 Jan 8 08:58 loadenv.mod
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 11:33 locale
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2988 Jan 8 08:58 loopback.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3716 Jan 8 08:58 lsacpi.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2308 Jan 8 08:58 lsapm.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1804 Jan 8 08:58 lsmmap.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4436 Jan 8 08:58 ls.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4968 Jan 8 08:58 lspci.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7216 Jan 8 08:58 lvm.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9084 Jan 8 08:58 lzopio.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1976 Jan 8 08:58 mdraid09.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2380 Jan 8 08:58 mdraid1x.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2144 Jan 8 08:58 memdisk.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2948 Jan 8 08:58 memrw.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3528 Jan 8 08:58 minicmd.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3880 Jan 8 08:58 minix2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3880 Jan 8 08:58 minix.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9300 Jan 8 08:58 mmap.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3292 Jan 8 08:58 moddep.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2492 Jan 8 08:58 msdospart.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12984 Jan 8 08:58 multiboot2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12292 Jan 8 08:58 multiboot.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6716 Jan 8 08:58 nilfs2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106448 Jan 8 08:58 normal.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3540 Jan 8 08:58 ntfscomp.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9612 Jan 8 08:58 ntfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2636 Jan 8 08:58 ntldr.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10432 Jan 8 08:58 ohci.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1772 Jan 8 08:58 part_acorn.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1856 Jan 8 08:58 part_amiga.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2192 Jan 8 08:58 part_apple.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2860 Jan 8 08:58 part_bsd.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2452 Jan 8 08:58 part_gpt.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 82 Jan 8 08:58 partmap.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2388 Jan 8 08:58 part_msdos.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1644 Jan 8 08:58 part_sun.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1776 Jan 8 08:58 part_sunpc.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 Jan 8 08:58 parttool.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4568 Jan 8 08:58 parttool.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2052 Jan 8 08:58 password.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2940 Jan 8 08:58 password_pbkdf2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1416 Jan 8 08:58 pbkdf2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1272 Jan 8 08:58 pci.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2568 Jan 8 08:58 play.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6620 Jan 8 08:58 png.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2740 Jan 8 08:58 probe.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Jan 8 08:58 pxeboot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1408 Jan 8 08:58 pxecmd.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6160 Jan 8 08:58 pxe.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1472 Jan 8 08:58 raid5rec.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2876 Jan 8 08:58 raid6rec.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6536 Jan 8 08:58 raid.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1640 Jan 8 08:58 read.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1200 Jan 8 08:58 reboot.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41940 Jan 8 08:58 regexp.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9544 Jan 8 08:58 reiserfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14644 Jan 8 08:58 relocator.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4028 Jan 8 08:58 scsi.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2980 Jan 8 08:58 search_fs_file.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3008 Jan 8 08:58 search_fs_uuid.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2912 Jan 8 08:58 search_label.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2628 Jan 8 08:58 search.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7260 Jan 8 08:58 sendkey.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7128 Jan 8 08:58 serial.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 706 Jan 8 08:58 setjmp.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5512 Jan 8 08:58 setpci.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 29 11:41 setup_left_core_image_in_filesystem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4052 Jan 8 08:58 sfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2392 Jan 8 08:58 sleep.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3972 Jan 8 08:58 squash4.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2968 Jan 8 08:58 tar.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 132 Jan 8 08:58 terminal.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3836 Jan 8 08:58 terminal.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10296 Jan 8 08:58 terminfo.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1508 Jan 8 08:58 test_blockarg.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2816 Jan 8 08:58 testload.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5100 Jan 8 08:58 test.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2940 Jan 8 08:58 tga.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1763 Jan 8 08:58 trig.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1356 Jan 8 08:58 true.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6572 Jan 8 08:58 udf.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4740 Jan 8 08:58 ufs1.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5052 Jan 8 08:58 ufs2.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6004 Jan 8 08:58 uhci.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2560080 Jan 8 09:00 unicode.pf2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4300 Jan 8 08:58 usb_keyboard.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9656 Jan 8 08:58 usb.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5604 Jan 8 08:58 usbms.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2048 Jan 8 08:58 usbserial_common.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2452 Jan 8 08:58 usbserial_ftdi.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2812 Jan 8 08:58 usbserial_pl2303.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3756 Jan 8 08:58 usbtest.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8840 Jan 8 08:58 vbe.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4724 Jan 8 08:58 vga.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2308 Jan 8 08:58 vga_text.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5536 Jan 8 08:58 video_bochs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5860 Jan 8 08:58 video_cirrus.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19164 Jan 8 08:58 video_fb.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3748 Jan 8 08:58 videoinfo.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33 Jan 8 08:58 video.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10752 Jan 8 08:58 video.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4268 Jan 8 08:58 videotest.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6152 Jan 8 08:58 xfs.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31736 Jan 8 08:58 xnu.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2016 Jan 8 08:58 xnu_uuid.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14468 Jan 8 08:58 xzio.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6360 Jan 8 08:58 zfsinfo.mod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33308 Jan 8 08:58 zfs.mod

# ls /boot/efi is empty


If I remember correctly the apt command to check for packages is like:

sudo apt-cache show <package_name>

It will show the latest version available in the repository and whether it's installed or not. You can make the check for both grub-pc and grub-efi.

# sudo apt-cache policy grub-pc
grub-pc:
Installed: 1.99-21ubuntu3.7
Candidate: 1.99-21ubuntu3.7
Version table:
*** 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 0
500 http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1.99-21ubuntu3 0
500 http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

# sudo apt-cache policy grub-efi
grub-efi:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.99-21ubuntu3.7
Version table:
1.99-21ubuntu3.7 0
500 http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
1.99-21ubuntu3 0
500 http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

# dpkg -l | grep grub
ii grub-common 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 GRand Unified Bootloader (common files)
ii grub-gfxpayload-lists 0.6 GRUB gfxpayload blacklist
ii grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS version)
ii grub-pc-bin 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS binaries)
ii grub2-common 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 GRand Unified Bootloader (common files for version 2)

Looks pretty safe to remove that partition?

Thanks!

[darkod]

Yes, it does. You can use the procedure we outlined before, and make sure the partition is still #1 before deleting it with rm 1. It must be, but it never hurts to check.

Since it's mounted, you should unmount it first with:
sudo umount /boot/efi

After that do the procedure command by command and run the grub-install.

Ubuntu is usually very resilient. You can even completely remove grub and install it, and it will work. Unless you reboot before reinstalling grub of course. :) So I hope all of this goes well.

[CJNZ2011]

Awesome! Thanks again!
Done and it worked.

One more question, do I need to run:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

I did this to test if it would work should this problem happen again.
It still only presented me with the choices as per before:
[ ] /dev/sda (2000398 MB; ST2000DM001-1CH164)
[ ] /dev/sdb (2000398 MB; ST2000DM001-1CH164)
[ ] /dev/dm-0 (2000395 MB; isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0)
[ ] /dev/dm-2 (1996115 MB; isw_dheheghgfa_Volume0)

Obviously, same error that led me to this problem initially as there is no /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0 listed.

Is it fine to just install it as per:
sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/blahblahvolume0
Does that also manage the config which I guess is what dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc is doing?

[darkod]

Hmm, I usually don't see /dev/dm-X devices, but I guess it might be short for /dev/mapper/... Something like dm = device mapper.

If you look at the dm-0 and dm-2 options, later it actually says the array device, blahblah_Volume0.

I am only confused why there are two, one sligthly smaller.

I would leave it as it is, I think it's configured good. If you want to, use parted again to display the /dev/mapper/... device again but this time with unit MB and compare it's total size (the device, not the partitions on it) with the MB size the dpkg-reconfigure is giving you for the dm-0 and dm-2 devices. If it matches to one of them, select it and save the changes.

[CJNZ2011]

Great! Thanks again for the HUGE help!