Re: How to mount a "BIOS boot partition"?

[Xen]

Giovanni Gherdovich schreef op 30-09-2016 20:25:
> Hello,
>
> I'd like to install two different linux distributions and use grub to
> boot into one or the other. I have a dedicated grub partition on
> /dev/sda1 and two other partitions for the OSes. /dev/sda1 appears to
> be a "BIOS boot partition" to tools like parted(8), fdisk(8) or
> gdisk(8).

As far as I know the "BIOS Boot Partition" does not contain any 
filesystem but only the Grub image. It is the space you need that would 
otherwise be put somewhere between the MBR and the first partition.

I think you do not need to run grub2-install on /dev/sda1, but on 
/dev/sda, though, and it will pick the boot partition automatically(?).

Your boot directory is just going to be on any regular filesystem that 
you have access to. In your case that is /dev/sda4, apparently.

So I think you simply need to be installing on /dev/sda.

In case you want to move your boot files off of /dev/sda4, you could 
split /dev/sda1 (it doesn't need to be 500MB, 1 or 2MB would be fine).

So you would delete it, create a new first partition of /dev/sda1, then 
another dedicated boot partition /dev/sda2 (you can use a tool like 
parted to renumber your gpt partitions) and then your remaining 
partitions will shift until /dev/sda5, you will now have 5 partitions, 
including one new "regular boot partition" containing an actual 
filesystem (like ext2).

Regards.