Re: grub 1.95-4 on mac intel mini

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Sunday 01 April 2007 23:02, rob wilco wrote:
> I upgraded the mac mini firmware and installed boot camp. So now I
> guess grub can use the MBR emulation mode.

Yes, if it is compiled for "pc" but not for "efi". If you compile GRUB for 
"efi", GRUB uses the native API of EFI.

> The disk is now partitioned with a /boot (ext2), a / (ext2) and a swap.
> Ultimately I would like to partition only / on lvm and a swap, and boot on
> lvm.

I don't know if it is really possible. I heard that you need to keep a hidden 
partition at the beginning of a disk, which contains some EFI modules.

> At the end of the debian installation, I install grub 0.97 which does not
> work on its own. But it is convenient to do this step anyway so that
> /boot/grub is created and especially the file device.map.
>
> Then, I switch to a console, add the unstable respository to my package
> repository list and install grub2 (1.95-4) and refit on the system.
>
> With gptsync from refit, I try to sync the gpt but I get a message saying
> there is no GTP found so no need to resync (!?)

This sounds dangerous to me. But I don't know refit well. It would be better 
to ask the maintainer.

> Now with grub-probe I try "grub-probe -t fs", "grub-probe -t device" and
> "grub-probe -t drive" (verbose but no error, output seems OK to me)
>
> Then I recreate a core.img: "grub-mkimage -o /boot/grub/core.img pc ext2
> lvm _chain" and installs grub into the MBR with "grub-setup -r '(hd0,2)'
> '(hd0)'" (verbose but no error).

I don't know if this works correctly. The problem is that grub-setup might 
embed "diskboot" into right after the MBR, and if this happens, it might 
overwrite a GPT partition table, if you still have it. I haven't confirmed if 
this can really happen, though.

> I you have any hints on what to do, check or try, I would be happy to read
> it.

Please check if you have GPT or not. For instance, if you launch parted, 
parted can tell you what kind of partition map is in use.

Okuji