Boot confusion

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 at 21:42, Jack McGee <jack at greendesk.net> wrote:
>
> > jack at Desktop:~$ sudo sfdisk -l

OK, cool. Let's have a look...

> > Disk /dev/sda: 232.91 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
> > Disk model: Samsung SSD 860
> > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disklabel type: gpt
> > Disk identifier: 562DD49D-AE00-454E-BF2D-B86CD24573E2

OK, so disk #1 is the 250GB SSD.

> > Disk /dev/sdb: 1.84 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
> > Disk model: ST2000DM006-2DM1
> > 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: dos

Disk #2 is the 2TB HDD.

An option, that _might_ make things easier, and since you have a tonne
of space, is to use a bootable USB to temporarily copy your root FS
somewhere else, repartition the disk with MBR (the DOS scheme) like
the others, and then copy the root partition back. No need for
bios-grub partitions etc. then!

> > Disk /dev/sde: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
> > Disk model: Samsung SSD 870
[...]
> > /dev/sde1        2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G 83 Linux

Oh! Another 1TB SSD, with a Linux partition?

> > Disk /dev/sdc: 12.75 TiB, 14000519643136 bytes, 27344764928 sectors
> > Disk model: ST14000NM001G-2K
> > 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

OK, this is big, so it _needs_ to be GPT.

> > Device          Start         End     Sectors  Size Type
> > /dev/sdc1  6398676992 27344762879 20946085888  9.8T Linux filesystem
> > /dev/sdc2        2048  3250528255  3250526208  1.5T Linux filesystem
> > /dev/sdc3  3250528256  6398676991  3148148736  1.5T Linux swap
> >
> > Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Another distro, perhaps?

> > Disk /dev/sdd: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
> > Disk model: SAMSUNG HD103SI
> > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disklabel type: dos
> > Disk identifier: 0x1d1810dd
> >
> > Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
> > /dev/sdd1  *            63 1376528246 1376528184 656.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
> > /dev/sdd2       1376528382 1953523711  576995330 275.1G  5 Extended
> > /dev/sdd5       1718511616 1943887871  225376256 107.5G 83 Linux
> > /dev/sdd6       1943889920 1953523711    9633792   4.6G 82 Linux swap
> > / Solaris
> > /dev/sdd7       1376528384 1704552447  328024064 156.4G 83 Linux
> > /dev/sdd8       1704554496 1718505471   13950976   6.7G 82 Linux swap
> > / Solaris

And *another* HDD, a 1TB one, with Windows _and_ yet another Linux on
it? And 2 swap partitions -- why 2?

> > Disk /dev/sdf: 29.74 GiB, 31914983424 bytes, 62333952 sectors
> > Disk model:
> > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disklabel type: dos
> > Disk identifier: 0xeecfcdba
> >
> > Device     Boot  Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
> > /dev/sdf1         8192   532479   524288  256M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
> > /dev/sdf2       532480 14360575 13828096  6.6G 83 Linux

And what's this? An old 30 GB HDD, partly empty, parly holding a FAT32
partition and _another_ Linux?

My word, that's a lot!

> > jack at Desktop:~$ sudo mount
> > /dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
... that's the root

> > /dev/sdc2 on /mnt/sdb2 type ext4 (rw,relatime)

... that's a confusing mess of names for mount points!

So there's a big partition on disk 3 mounted...

> > /dev/sdc1 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)

And your /home partition is on disk *3* not 2.

> > /dev/sdd7 on /mnt/sda7 type ext4 (rw,relatime)
> > /dev/sdd5 on /mnt/sda5 type ext4 (rw,relatime)

And we have the partitions on the 2nd, bigger SSD mounted, again with
confusing names.,

So there is quite a mess of stuff on disks 3-5, including another
bigger SSD, a huge HDD with your home directory, which isn't on disk
#2 after all, and an old 30GB disk as well?

Re changing the boot device -- OK, fair enough, I believe you know,
seeing the complexity of this setup and the NFS mounts! :-)

I reckon it might be worth your while to remove one small element of
complexity and repartition the small SSD as DOS/MBR instead of GPT.
You have enough spare space! :-o

-- 
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