Grub error: "will not proceed with blocklists."

[Volker Wysk]

Am Freitag, 5. Januar 2018, 18:58:45 CET schrieb 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 It will probably merely have an out-of-date boot loader, but that's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

desktop ~ % LANG=C parted -s /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD40EFRX-68W (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 4001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  2097kB  1049kB
 2      2097kB  258MB   256MB   ext2
 3      258MB   4001GB  4001GB

> > 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.

Okay.

/dev/sda1 has the type "Linux Filesystem", as reported by fdisk. Could this be the culprit? It doesn't seem to really contain a filesystem:

desktop /tmp % mkdir sda1
desktop /tmp % mount /dev/sda1 sda1
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so.


       
Volker