problem installing grub to linux mint partition

[David H. Durgee]

> Le 03/06/2018 à 02:24, David H. Durgee a écrit :
>
>     I am encountering problems attempting to install grub on a linux mint 18.3 (sylvia) partition on a multi-boot system.  When booting the live DVD and invoking its installer the partition is not listed as a target to install grub. 
>
>
> Which devices are listed ?

The only partitions listed as possible grub targets were the master boot 
record, a FreeDOS partition and two NTFS formatted Windows partitions. 
The JFS formatted linux and eCS partitions, including the target for the 
new installation, were not listed as possible grub targets.

>     I opened a terminal window and attempted to manually install grub with the 
> following results:
>
>
>     sudo grub-install -v /dev/sda15
>     grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `aufs'.
>
>
> Is this a UEFI or BIOS/legacy setup ? I'll assume BIOS.

Correct, this is a BIOS machine.

> I guess you ran grub-install in the live system instead of the chrooted 
> installed system. By default, it assumes that the boot directory is /boot on 
> the current /. In your live system, / appears to be a AUFS (union mount), which 
> is a virtual filesystem and cannot be mapped to a device. You must have the 
> filesystem containing the /boot directory of the installed system mounted and 
> specify the path to the directory.
>
>
> grub-install --boot-directory=/<mountpoint>/boot /dev/sda15
>
> Or chroot into the installed root, mount everything needed (/dev, /proc, 
> /sys...) and run grub-install from there.
>
>
> In either case, you'll have to run update-grub in a chroot afterwards to 
> generate grub.cfg.

You are correct, I ran grub-install and grub-probe in a terminal window 
started from the Live DVD session.  I have NOT installed sylvia yet, so 
chrooting is not an option at this point.  Given I cannot select the 
proper target for the grub install I aborted the install itself.

I had not thought that grub-probe error related to the source instead of 
the target.  In that case, perhaps I can check where the /boot directory 
is originating and point to that in the grub-install command.  If 
necessary I guess it would be possible to mount the origin to /mnt and 
then point to it.

Of course that will fail if grub no longer supports installation in JFS 
partitions.  That was my suspicion when none of them were listed as grub 
targets.  I have it installed in LM8, helena, and LM13, maya, on this 
system on JFS partitions.  So I know at that point JFS was a supported 
grub target.

Can you confirm for me that JFS is a supported grub install target?  I 
can see from the targets listed that FAT and NTFS are supported, but 
obviously I am not going to install linux on either of those.  If JFS 
has been dropped what linux file systems are currently supported as grub 
targets?

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Dave