Hi all. I have a post over at
SSD Review Forums trying to set my Crucial M4 SSD as bootable so as I can boot straight into Fedora 15 without having to chainload from a Fedora 14 Grub installation.
For some reason, and I am trying to find out why, I cannot boot directly into my SSD from the bios of my DFI-NF4-SLI mobo (yes its an old one but that shouldn't matter because SSD's are supposed to act independently of the mobo.)
Here is a fdisk -l print out. My SSD is sdc and grub is installed in sda1 which is listed by fdisk as bootable.
Quote:
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00010d0b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 234773909 117386923+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 234773910 1953520064 859373077+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5d4ad108
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 163846934 81923436 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 163848192 225288191 30720000 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 225288192 231432191 3072000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4 231432192 976773119 372670464 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdc: 64.0 GB, 64023257088 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125045424 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0001d2c3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 2048 31746047 15872000 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 31746048 115714047 41984000 83 Linux
/dev/sdc3 115714048 125044735 4665344 82 Linux swap / Solaris
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I'm not sure if /dev/sdc1 which is marked as bootable according to fdisk is actually bootable. It is aligned properly according to
Stevea's thread about setting up SSD's but it is a bit confusing to me to be honest.
Here is my Grub.conf from my SSD with a working Fedora 15 installation (which I am using to write this right now). So my install works, I just can't boot directly into it directly from the Bios of my mobo. Title
previous links back to the Fedora 14 Grub menu.
Quote:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd2,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sdc1
# initrd /boot/initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sdc1
default=0
timeout=3
splashimage=(hd2,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.38.7-30.fc15.x86_64)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-30.fc15.x86_64 ro root=UUID=4916080d-e8bb-4dee-906f-32801b8d81f9 elevator=noop rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb radeon.modeset=0
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.38.7-30.fc15.x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64 ro root=UUID=4916080d-e8bb-4dee-906f-32801b8d81f9 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64.img
title previous
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
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Because Fedora only uses Grub Legacy and not Grub2, I am stuck using MBR as the 'partiton table' ??? and not GPT which most other Linux distro's have moved to. I read that over at
ArchLinux Forums. So, I checked that with gdisk, output ...
Quote:
[root@localhost ~]# gdisk /dev/sdc
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.7.1
Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present
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From this I assume I have a valid partition table capable of booting my SSD. ??? Am I wrong?
When I select to boot from my Crucial M4 in bios, I get Nada... nothing. The bios load stops. But, if I select my Fedora 14 disk which is sdb, with a bootable MBR then I can chainload through to my SDD and the second grub install and can subsequently select to boot into Fedora 15.
Clear as mud?? Please someone help... I'm going batty.