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GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

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GratefulBird
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GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#1 Post by GratefulBird »

Thank you for taking the time to look at this issue. I'm new to Debian and want to install it on a desktop machine with two Samsung SSDs, each 2T, which I want to have mirrored, RAID1.

I have followed the tutorial steps in this video: 'Debian 11 on mdadm Raid1 with Recovering.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7jdxRat-qs

The instruction in the video around 11:00 shows that the boot partition should be an EXT4 file system. However, if I don't make the RAID partition for booting an EFI partition, I get this error: "No EFI partition found. Go back to the menu and resume partitioning?" So I went back and made the boot partition EFI.

Now I get a different error message on a red background: "Installation step failed. You can try to run the failing item again from the menu or skip it and choose something else. The failing step is: Install the GRUB boot loader.

Something that may be relevant: I didn't have this EFI error or GRUB boot install failure while I still had a third SSD installed that had Windows on it. That was the SSD that came with this machine. I installed the two larger identical 2T SSDs in addition to that original one. I removed that smaller SSD with Windows to simplify the boot process in case one of the SSDs fails.

Please view the attached image to see the partition and RAID setup that causes this GRUB boot loader error.

So if I follow the tutorial literally, I can't install it because there's no EFI partition. But if I proceed with one, I get this GRUB boot loader installation failure.

How can I resolve this?
Attachments
partition - cropped.jpg

p.H
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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#2 Post by p.H »

GratefulBird wrote: 2023-01-18 15:07 the boot partition should be an EXT4 file system. However, if I don't make the RAID partition for booting an EFI partition, I get this error
"Boot partition" is ambiguous. It may be a /boot partition (whatever filesystem supported by Linux and GRUB, mounted on /boot), an EFI partition (FAT, mounted on /boot/efi), a "BIOS boot" partition (unformatted, used by GRUB for BIOS boot on GPT)...
If you mean an EFI partition, it cannot be a regular RAID array. Currently you have two options:

- Create independent (non RAID) EFI partitions on each drive, mount one on /boot/efi and another one on some other mountpoint such as /boot/efi2, and manually install GRUB in the second one after the installation. You will have to do it again after each grub* package update.

Code: Select all

grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi2
- Manually create a RAID1 array with metadata=1.0 (at the end of the RAID partitions so that they can be used as regular FAT partitions by the UEFI firmware) and mount it on /booot/efi, but it is a hack and the installer will fail to completely install GRUB on it because it cannot create the EFI boot entry. You will have to create them (for each partition) manually with efibootmgr. Also if the UEFI firmware or anything else writes to one EFI partition, the RAID array may be corrupted.

In either case, I recommend to select expert install in the advanced submenu of the installer boot menu and install GRUB in the "removable media path" of the EFI partition when prompted.

Note: I would not create separate RAID arrays for / and swap but one RAID array used with LVM and logical volumes for /, /home, swap...
GratefulBird wrote: 2023-01-18 15:07 I follow the tutorial literally
Never do this. Always understand and adapt to your specific needs.

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#3 Post by GratefulBird »

The first option, with two non-RAID EFI system partitions, gives the following error message:

"Identical mount points for two file systems." Please see the attached screenshots of the partition and the error. I chose /boot/efi, and boot/efi2. I also tried changing 'efi2' two 'secondefi' but that had no effect. The message seems to say that 'sda and sda' (?) are both mounted to /boot/efi.

I changed one of the partitions to FAT32 to see if that helped, but it didn't. The error message is the same.

What can I do about this?
Attachments
newpartitiontwoEFI.jpg
identicalMountPoints.jpg
EFI2bootable.jpg

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#4 Post by p.H »

Do not select a mount point for EFI partitions. The installer will pick one and you will mount the other one after installation.

GratefulBird
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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#5 Post by GratefulBird »

I removed the mount point for the EFI partition; however, this message says the partition will not be used. If I proceed anyway, I get the same error that GRUB fails to install.

I then experimented with setting the mount point to /boot, but that's an "Invalid file system for this mount point."
Attachments
noMountPoint.jpg
installationStepFailedGRUB.jpg

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#6 Post by GratefulBird »

What are the benefits of EFI, and is it worth it? If I can easily install a RAID without EFI, perhaps I should try that?

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#7 Post by p.H »

GratefulBird wrote: 2023-01-31 03:51 I removed the mount point for the EFI partition; however, this message says the partition will not be used.
Were both partitions set to "use as: EFI system partition" ?
Maybe you hit an installer bug and the partitioner is stuck in a confused state. Did you try to restart the installation and do not touch the EFI partitions ?

AFAIK EFI boot does not provide any benefit and complicates redundant boot. If the machine can boot in BIOS/legacy mode, this is the way to go.

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#8 Post by GratefulBird »

Restarting the installation worked. The installation com completed, and the RAID is up and running.

I'll stick with the EFI boot system because at least the installation works now, and I don't know if this machine can boot in BIOS/legacy mode.

Almost there!

I mounted the second EFI partition to /boot/efi2.

However, the grub-install command you suggested doesn't work at the moment. Please see the attached image for the partitions and a few attempts at the grub-install command.

I looked at the package manager, which shows several packages related to grub. But I don't understand how these packages relate to the grub-install command or where to enable this command.
Attachments
grubcommand.jpg

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Re: GRUB boot loader fails to install with a RAID1 partition

#9 Post by p.H »

Can you please insert console content as plain text within code tags instead of screenshots ?
No need to use sudo to mount a filesystem when you are already in a root shell.
How did you start the root shell ? With "su" (not good, results in incomplete $PATH) or "su -" ?
Note that you should not cd to /boot/efi2 before mounting a filesystem on it, else you (and the programs you run) will not access the filesystem contents but the directory contents.

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