legacy Ubuntu/OSX grub issues

[northwinds]

I put up a query a few weeks back re a legacy multiboot system I was trying to figure out, but unfortuntely life got in the way and I had to pretty much start from scratch again - except for the osx install.

My main problem is with setting up ubuntu to be recognised by Clover.

They are on 2 separate ssd's - I disconnect the osx drive before installing ubuntu.

I've tried various suggestions - including a lot of those posted by Going Bald - but there always seems to be a problem.

This is an old machine I'm trying to get setup as a fall back and Linux learning rig so there is no UEFI option, just legacy.

I've tried various partition setups with suggested fat32 and ext3 boot partitions prior to the main root ubuntu directory and installing grub directly to them but none have worked so far.

One very specific question I have is the issue of OSX trying to initialise the linux disk on start - in one thread comment Going Bald mentioned a trick of setting up an initial hfs+j parttition of about 200MB at the start of the linux disk.
Would this mean installing grub to this or having an ext3 or fat32 boot partition after that - with the main ubuntu install root directory after that?

i tried this latter setup but ubuntu was unbootable with grub rescue coming up with filesystem unrecognisable?

Many thanks for all input on this!

Cheers!

 

[Going Bald]

I put up a query a few weeks back re a legacy multiboot system I was trying to figure out, but unfortuntely life got in the way and I had to pretty much start from scratch again - except for the osx install.

My main problem is with setting up ubuntu to be recognised by Clover.

They are on 2 separate ssd's - I disconnect the osx drive before installing ubuntu.

I've tried various suggestions - including a lot of those posted by Going Bald - but there always seems to be a problem.

This is an old machine I'm trying to get setup as a fall back and Linux learning rig so there is no UEFI option, just legacy.

I've tried various partition setups with suggested fat32 and ext3 boot partitions prior to the main root ubuntu directory and installing grub directly to them but none have worked so far.

One very specific question I have is the issue of OSX trying to initialise the linux disk on start - in one thread comment Going Bald mentioned a trick of setting up an initial hfs+j parttition of about 200MB at the start of the linux disk.
Would this mean installing grub to this or having an ext3 or fat32 boot partition after that - with the main ubuntu install root directory after that?

i tried this latter setup but ubuntu was unbootable with grub rescue coming up with filesystem unrecognisable?

Many thanks for all input on this!

Cheers!

Clover has some problems with Grub and it seems to not be predictable which system specs will cause problems.
Setting up an EFI partition is only needed on UEFI systems to allow EFI booting. Some versions of Clover also have problems with detecting EXT4 formatted partitions, so it may be better to format the Linux drive as EXT3. You can try it both ways - EXT4 first and then EXT3 if it does not work with EXT4.

On a legacy system with Linux having its own drive Grub will be installed to the MBR and to root automtically if you allow it to erase the drive and install itself, creating its own partitions. This is the easiest way to install it. Once installed, make sure it will boot on its own first before attempting to boot it with Clover.
When booting with Clover, make sure Clover is scanning for a Linux drive (hopefully this is all you will need) with the scan entry in the config.plist.

 

[northwinds]

Clover has some problems with Grub and it seems to not be predictable which system specs will cause problems.
Setting up an EFI partition is only needed on UEFI systems to allow EFI booting. Some versions of Clover also have problems with detecting EXT4 formatted partitions, so it may be better to format the Linux drive as EXT3. You can try it both ways - EXT4 first and then EXT3 if it does not work with EXT4.

On a legacy system with Linux having its own drive Grub will be installed to the MBR and to root automtically if you allow it to erase the drive and install itself, creating its own partitions. This is the easiest way to install it. Once installed, make sure it will boot on its own first before attempting to boot it with Clover.
When booting with Clover, make sure Clover is scanning for a Linux drive (hopefully this is all you will need) with the scan entry in the config.plist.

View attachment 453040

Many thanks for that!
I'll try both!

Could you just let me know about the proposed hfs+j 200mb partition tp stop osx asking to initialize the linux drive?

Thanks again!

 

[northwinds]

Or would you suggest allowing linux to do its thing and install grub to the mbr and linux partition, then to add in a hfs+j 200mb partition after?

 

[Going Bald]

Or would you suggest allowing linux to do its thing and install grub to the mbr and linux partition, then to add in a hfs+j 200mb partition after?

There is no need for the HFS+J partition on a legacy system unless you are going to put both Mac OS and Linux on the same drive. Since you indicate you have separate drives for each OS, forget the partition on the Linux drive.

 

[northwinds]

I still get the "initialze drive" pop up when booting into osx though?

Also I tried the basic linux setup you suggested with both ext3 and ext4 formatting, and also checked the clover config.plist entries matched yours above and still no access to ubuntu via clover?

 

[Going Bald]

I still get the "initialze drive" pop up when booting into osx though?

Also I tried the basic linux setup you suggested with both ext3 and ext4 formatting, and also checked the clover config.plist entries matched yours above and still no access to ubuntu via clover?

You need to have Mac OS ignore the "unreadable" drives. See

GitHub - jrnewell/disk-arbitration-agent: Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unreadable SATA drives

Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unreadable SATA drives - GitHub - jrnewell/disk-arbitration-agent: Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unre...

github.com

Not sure it has been updated for latest Mac OS or not. Check with the app author.

 

[northwinds]

You need to have Mac OS ignore the "unreadable" drives. See

GitHub - jrnewell/disk-arbitration-agent: Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unreadable SATA drives

Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unreadable SATA drives - GitHub - jrnewell/disk-arbitration-agent: Modified DiskArbitrationAgent for Yosemite (10.10.x) to ignore unre...

github.com

Not sure it has been updated for latest Mac OS or not. Check with the app author.

Thanks GB - that worked great!

On the other point though, I played around with clover a bit to try and get my linux and win10 to show up and managed to lose access to OSX completely.

Ultimately I fixed this via Ubuntu and reverted to a backed up config.plist in clover, but now I have 3 ssds with OSX, Win10 and Ubuntu all working great if I choose the seperate disks via bios, but my grub and windows (there are 2 - Legacy HD1 and Legacy HD2) entries in clover do nothing but take me to a black screen with a small (low-res) linux or windows icon in the middle.

Can you give me some specific hints here please?

It took me quite a while to figure how to access the OSX EFI in Ubuntu so I'd rather not risk making a mess like that again.

Many thanks!

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks GB - that worked great!

On the other point though, I played around with clover a bit to try and get my linux and win10 to show up and managed to lose access to OSX completely.

Ultimately I fixed this via Ubuntu and reverted to a backed up config.plist in clover, but now I have 3 ssds with OSX, Win10 and Ubuntu all working great if I choose the seperate disks via bios, but my grub and windows (there are 2 - Legacy HD1 and Legacy HD2) entries in clover do nothing but take me to a black screen with a small (low-res) linux or windows icon in the middle.

Can you give me some specific hints here please?

It took me quite a while to figure how to access the OSX EFI in Ubuntu so I'd rather not risk making a mess like that again.

Many thanks!

post your zipped config.plist

 

[northwinds]

post your zipped config.plist

Ok - shall do!