[bug #41393] super grub2 and grub in general doesn't read ext2 usb flash when the system only supports legacy usb devices

[Alan Fujinami]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?41393>

                 Summary: super grub2 and grub in general doesn't read ext2
usb flash when the system only supports legacy usb devices
                 Project: GNU GRUB
            Submitted by: needgrace
            Submitted on: Wed 29 Jan 2014 05:05:39 PM GMT
                Category: Booting
                Severity: Major
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Software Error
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Alan Fujinami
        Originator Email: address@hidden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 
                 Release: 1.98
         Reproducibility: None
         Planned Release: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

Debian 7.2 netinst install fails to boot after installation.

The symptom on trying to boot from the newly installed debian from the usb
flash drive is "error: unknown filesystem" and then dropping out into the grub
rescue prompt.

The system is a Pentium 4 based system. In other words it is an older system.
dmidecode shows USB "legacy is supported".

Much digging through various website/usergroups shows several people who seem
to have the same symptoms but some of those who offer "solutions" don't seem
to have a problem booting USB installation of debian/ubuntu...

taking one of the "solution" suggestions was to get super grub 2 disk. So I
did. But that could not find the installed linux. It reported that no OS was
found.

Upon many attempts, one attempt was to partition my 16GB flash drive to have
2GB vfat16, 12GB ext2,1GB swap and the rest unused...

The linux installation was installed on the ext2 partition which had the
master boot record pointing to it. Then I copied the /boot directory onto the
vfat paritian and supergrub2 was able to see that "OS"... attempting to run
that, however, did not quite work but it was able to recognize its existence
and attempt to load it. 

I then able to get to the grub prompt and any attempt to reference the ext2
partitian also resulted in "unknown filesystem".

If I am not mistake, grub2 uses the built in driver to read the "disk" but
this built in driver is only for msdos formatted drives. So, whether a USB
flash drive or a USB physical drive formatted as ext2 results in this same
error whereas an internal ide drive formatted to ext2 installs and boots up
without a problem.

Obviously one solution would be to upgrade the bios if that is possible. But
that doesn't seem possible in this case as the systems are old and it isn't
clear that an upgrade is available. 

Perhaps the answer is I am SOL... I hope not though... it seems like if I can
install grub onto the vfat partitian and have that be able to see the ext2
partitian then that would be a workable solution.

Additional information is that the computer, given a driver, can read USB
flash formatted as ext2. Just not during  boot up.





    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?41393>

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via/by Savannah
  http://savannah.gnu.org/