Cannot bootadm install-bootloader GRUB2??

kebabbert · 10-01-2017, 01:18 PM

I have upgraded my Supermicro X10SAT bios. After the upgrade the Solaris 11.3 entries disappeared as described here:
https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki...er_BIOS_Update

So I am trying to install GRUB2 again. To that end, I have booted USB Solaris 11.3 media and mounted the rpool.

Code:

# su, password is "solaris"
# zpool import -f rpool
# zpool status
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
  scan: none requested
config:

    NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
      c3t2d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

# bootadm list-menu -P rpool[lists all BE I have on the system]

# bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool
bootadm: GRUB2 installation failed

I dont understand what the problem is. Anyone have a clue why I cannot install GRUB2?

jlliagre · 10-02-2017, 03:27 PM

Was the BIOS Boot Mode set to legacy or UEFI before the upgrade?

Did you try switching this setting?

kebabbert · 10-03-2017, 02:53 AM

I dont remember which BIOS boot mode it was before the upgrade.
I can not change the BIOS mode from legacy to UEFI or vice versa. There is no option for that in BIOS, I have checked that thorough. My motherboard is Supermicro X10SAT.

However, I have now decided to reinstall Solaris 11.3 instead of spending more time on GRUB. To that end, I have encountered this error upon reinstall. Do you have any clue of what I should do? I have an old functioning Win10 install which is why I am hesitant to experiment, I dont want to bork Win10 and reinstall that as well.

"I tried to reinstall GRUB2 on my previous Solaris 11.3 installation but could not figure out why "bootadm install-bootloader" failed. Now I am trying to reinstall Solaris 11.3 instead, over my old Solaris partition. I am using the USB Live media ISO with the GUI. Installation fails with this message:

"The selected disk has no more available slots to create a system boot partition.
Allow at least one unused partition"

I have since earlier partitioned my system disk into Solaris 11.3 and Windows10. First I installed Windows10, and then Solaris 11.3. I am trying to install Solaris 11.3 and I can choose to install Solaris onto these partitions:

Solaris - 330GB <---- My old broken install
EFI system partition - 0.3 GB
Microsoft Reserved - 0.0 GB
Windows Basic Data - 492.3 GB <---- Win10 system
Windows Recovery Environment - 0.8 GB
Windows Basic Data - 108.1 GB <----- NTFS partition
Solaris Reserved Partition - 0.0 GB

So I select the first partition, "Solaris" and click "Next" but then I see this error message above, "no more available slots, yadda yadda". How should I proceed? Can I mark "EFI system partition" as "unused" which means I have two available slots? But is Win10 using "EFI system partition"? Or is Solaris using it? I am afraid to bork my Win10 installation as I try to free another slot. Any advice?"

EllaDeker · 01-03-2018, 01:25 AM

Thanks for the answer, you really helped, because I was also worried about this issue

kebabbert · 02-07-2018, 06:12 AM

In the end I reinstalled everything, with one caveat. I have lifted off Solaris to another disk so Solaris doesnt have to interact with other OSes. Linux and Windows are quite well behaved, so they live together on one disk. Solaris lives on another disk. This works best.

One caveat though; when I booted up Windows10 (or was it 7?) installation usb and looked at all disks and then quit the installation, it borked my Solaris partition. Windows installation usb modifies the disks even when just inspecting. So, before installing Windows, remove all non Windows disks because they will get overwritten.