Grub error: "will not proceed with blocklists."

[Colin Watson]

On Fri, Jan 05, 2018 at 07:46:39PM +0100, Volker Wysk wrote:
> I'm afraid I have broken something. grub-install outputs this message:
> 
> desktop ~ % LANG=C grub-install /dev/sda
> Installing for i386-pc platform.
> grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible.
> grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists.  However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
> grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists.
> 
> Does this mean that my system won't boot again?

It will probably merely have an out-of-date boot loader, but that's
certainly something that should be fixed sooner rather than later.

> This is my partitioning:
> 
> desktop ~ % LANG=C fdisk --list /dev/sda
> Disk /dev/sda: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disklabel type: gpt
> Disk identifier: 4E84672C-31E6-42E8-AF97-254EE3E6410B
> 
> Device      Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
> /dev/sda1    2048       4095       2048    1M Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda2    4096     503807     499712  244M Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda3  503808 7814035455 7813531648  3.7T Linux filesystem
> GPT (END)

fdisk is insufficient to work out what's going on with GPT.  Try:

  parted -s /dev/sda print

> What is that sda1 partition? It has been set up by the kubuntu installer, when I started to build my system. What is it good for?

Impossible to say with the output so far.

> My machine is somewhat old, I don't think that I have EFI.

Although GPT is defined by the UEFI specification, it doesn't require
UEFI as such (although some BIOSes may need a bit of massaging to boot
from it).  The reason that the installer chose GPT in your case is that
the older MBR partition table format can't fully address disks larger
than 2 TiB.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]