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Debian on external hard drive not booting
Debian on external hard drive not booting
Good afternoon !
I am trying to install Debian on my external HDD (4 TB), to use it with a regular BIOS (no UEFI). My HDD is partitionned in GPT like this :
- 1st partition : no filesystem, 1MB, bios_grub flag on Gparted, selected as boot partition (don't remember the exact name) during the Debian installation
-2nd partition : data, NTFS, not used during installation
-3rd partition : /home, 150 GB
-4th partition : /, 150 GB
-5th partition : SWAP, 8 GB
After the installation (I did select my external hard drive as the drive on which the installer should install GRUB), on boot, my computer detects my HDD but says "No Operation System found". I've already tried to reinstall GRUB with the rescue mode but it didn't help.
May I have some piece of advice? I can provide you any other information if needed.
Thanks a lot,
Arli21
I am trying to install Debian on my external HDD (4 TB), to use it with a regular BIOS (no UEFI). My HDD is partitionned in GPT like this :
- 1st partition : no filesystem, 1MB, bios_grub flag on Gparted, selected as boot partition (don't remember the exact name) during the Debian installation
-2nd partition : data, NTFS, not used during installation
-3rd partition : /home, 150 GB
-4th partition : /, 150 GB
-5th partition : SWAP, 8 GB
After the installation (I did select my external hard drive as the drive on which the installer should install GRUB), on boot, my computer detects my HDD but says "No Operation System found". I've already tried to reinstall GRUB with the rescue mode but it didn't help.
May I have some piece of advice? I can provide you any other information if needed.
Thanks a lot,
Arli21
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Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
Did you install GRUB in the MBR, not in a partition ?
Try to set the boot flag on the protective GPT partition in the MBR.
Some BIOS firmwares require it to consider a drive is bootable.
Try to set the boot flag on the protective GPT partition in the MBR.
Code: Select all
parted /dev/sdX disk_set pmbr_boot on
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
I actually just selected my drive like /dev/sdx during the install, not a partition. Can I run parted from the reescue mode ? If yes, should I select "run shell in /dev/sdxX" in the rescue menu or "run shell in the installer environment" ?p.H wrote:Did you install GRUB in the MBR, not in a partition ?
Try to set the boot flag on the protective GPT partition in the MBR.Some BIOS firmwares require it to consider a drive is bootable.Code: Select all
parted /dev/sdX disk_set pmbr_boot on
Thanks
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Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
Yes, parted is available in rescue mode. Just run a shell in the installer environment or switch to a text console with Ctrl+Alt+F2.
You can also activate the protective MBR boot flag with fdisk by forcing the use of the DOS format.
You can also activate the protective MBR boot flag with fdisk by forcing the use of the DOS format.
Code: Select all
fdisk -t dos /dev/sdX
p (print table, shows the protective GPT partition)
a (toggle boot flag)
1 (partition number)
w (write)
q (quit)
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
Ok, I am going to try this, but when I last tried Ctrl+alt+f2 it just launched BusyBox, which didn't have parted included. But anyway, I'm going to do with a shell in the installer env.
Thanks !
Thanks !
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
I just tried this, on CTRL ALT F2 (finally it was working). The parted thing seemed to work, it just displayed a warning about updating the fstab, but when I rebooted I didn't manage to boot on the HDD ("Operation System not found"). So I tried again with the fdsik and I got this :
And then, when i typed "p" :
So I think something is misbehaving... :/
Code: Select all
Welcome to fdisk...
...
The size of the disk is 3.7 TiB (4000787029504 bytes). DOS partition table format can not be used in drives for volumes larger than 2119902325040 bytes for 512-byte sectors. Use GUID partition table format (GPT).
Code: Select all
Disk /dev/sdb : 3.7 TiB ...
Units : sectors of 512 bytes
...
Disklabel type : dos
...
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 1 4294967295 4294967295 2T ee GPT
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Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
The warning about the size is normal. And the protective partition table is as expected after the parted command.
I don't know what's wrong. This trick has always worked for me on PCs with a broken BIOS.
I don't know what's wrong. This trick has always worked for me on PCs with a broken BIOS.
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
Could it be related to settings in my BIOS Setup ? Do you want me to send you available options?
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
Ok. I have :
- Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) : Disabled
- Virtualization : Enabled
- Integrated NIC : Enabled
- USB Emulation : Enabled
- USB Powershare : Enabled
- USB Wake Support : Enabled
- SATA Operation : ANCI (the other choice is ATA)
- External USB Ports : Enabled
- eSATA Ports : Enabled
Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
No, nothing like that :/p.H wrote:I'm afraid not. Isn't there some USB drive emulation mode setting, with choices such as hard disk, floppy, auto...
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Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
are you saying the comp does not have a EFI option , bios booting only ? If it is a old comp and the firmware is not GPT capable then it (may /will) not boot directly to a GPT only partitioned disk. You can try using a hybrid partitioned disk but it does have drawbacks. { I have used hybrid only on a MAC to boot MS Windows 7 } https://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.htmlto use it with a regular BIOS (no UEFI)
Or you can try putting /boot on a bios partitioned hdd with / on the gpt disk, likely the easiest.
I suspect instead of /boot on the bios hdd , you could put only /boot/grub on the bios hdd. You would have to manually do that and manually edit the grub.cfg. I have used a dedicated grub only partition for years, but not to boot a gpt disk with MBR only bios.
The best way could depend on just what OS's you have on the internal hdd or if you want it to boot in other comps.
The make/mode , desktop,laptop (web site) may help use to know. How many usb outlet does the comp have ? (start the boot from a usb stick, mybe) The external is connected via usb ?
If it is MS Windows on internal hdd and you do not want normal grub, grub4dos might work(?).
Just listing what might work for you.
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Re: Debian on external hard drive not booting
What does it mean that a BIOS firmware is GPT capable ?lostfarmer wrote: If it is a old comp and the firmware is not GPT capable then it (may /will) not boot directly to a GPT only partitioned disk
AFAIK a BIOS firmware does not need to know anything about partition schemes such as GPT or DOS. BIOS boot only involves the boot code in the MBR, not the partition table.
Separating /boot/grub requires that GRUB can read the drive(s) containing /boot. By default GRUB relies on the BIOS to read drives. But some BIOSes expose a USB drive through BIOS calls only when booting from that drive (as hd0). When booting from another drive, you need GRUB to use platform drivers to bypass the BIOS calls.lostfarmer wrote:I suspect instead of /boot on the bios hdd , you could put only /boot/grub on the bios hdd.