Discussion:
[gentoo-user] New system doesn't recognized bootable devise
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t***@sys-concept.com
2023-11-20 01:30:01 UTC
Permalink
I transferred my old Sata SSD Intel-SSD from my ATOM computer to Iintel i5, Asus H610 motherboard.

Bios recognized both drives:

AHCI: Sata6G_1: Intel SSDSC2BF480A5 (this is the transferred drive bootable)
and
NVME: Samsung SSD 970 (this is new one not formated)

But under Bios Boot Menu my transferred intel ssd is not recognized as bootable drive.
Any solutions?
Is it a Boot Menu Setting?
I can post a picture.
--
Thelma
Michael
2023-11-20 08:40:02 UTC
Permalink
I transferred my old Sata SSD Intel-SSD from my ATOM computer to Iintel i5,
Asus H610 motherboard.
AHCI: Sata6G_1: Intel SSDSC2BF480A5 (this is the transferred drive bootable)
and
NVME: Samsung SSD 970 (this is new one not formated)
But under Bios Boot Menu my transferred intel ssd is not recognized as
bootable drive. Any solutions?
Is it a Boot Menu Setting?
I can post a picture.
The EFI boot on the MoBo must be set to Legacy Bios or EFI, depending on the
partition table type of your SSD (MBR Vs GPT).

To set this you should enable the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the
Boot Menu of the MoBo and then look into the Boot Configuration submenu
choices.
t***@sys-concept.com
2023-11-20 17:50:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Michael
I transferred my old Sata SSD Intel-SSD from my ATOM computer to Iintel i5,
Asus H610 motherboard.
AHCI: Sata6G_1: Intel SSDSC2BF480A5 (this is the transferred drive bootable)
and
NVME: Samsung SSD 970 (this is new one not formated)
But under Bios Boot Menu my transferred intel ssd is not recognized as
bootable drive. Any solutions?
Is it a Boot Menu Setting?
I can post a picture.
The EFI boot on the MoBo must be set to Legacy Bios or EFI, depending on the
partition table type of your SSD (MBR Vs GPT).
To set this you should enable the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the
Boot Menu of the MoBo and then look into the Boot Configuration submenu
choices.
The CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the Boot Menu is greyed out.
It is Asus h610i Motherboard, and according for CSM to be enabled it needs dedicated graphic card;
I don't have one, using Intel i5 CPU graphic.

Is it possible to boot strap and re-partition /boot sector so the motherboard will recognize it without dedicated graphic card?
Michael
2023-11-20 18:30:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
Post by Michael
I transferred my old Sata SSD Intel-SSD from my ATOM computer to Iintel i5,
Asus H610 motherboard.
AHCI: Sata6G_1: Intel SSDSC2BF480A5 (this is the transferred drive
bootable) and
NVME: Samsung SSD 970 (this is new one not formated)
But under Bios Boot Menu my transferred intel ssd is not recognized as
bootable drive. Any solutions?
Is it a Boot Menu Setting?
I can post a picture.
The EFI boot on the MoBo must be set to Legacy Bios or EFI, depending on
the partition table type of your SSD (MBR Vs GPT).
To set this you should enable the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the
Boot Menu of the MoBo and then look into the Boot Configuration submenu
choices.
The CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the Boot Menu is greyed out.
It is Asus h610i Motherboard, and according for CSM to be enabled it needs
dedicated graphic card; I don't have one, using Intel i5 CPU graphic.
This is weird. What does a dedicated graphics card have to do with the
partitioning scheme of a storage device? :-/

I don't have access to your MoBo to know its quirks, so can't help with
specifics.
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
Is it possible to boot strap and re-partition /boot sector so the
motherboard will recognize it without dedicated graphic card?
The first thing to establish is if your SSD is using MBR partitioning, or GPT:

fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'

will output "dos" for MBR, or "gpt" for GPT. I suspect your SSD is using MBR.

You could convert the MBR to GPT, but ... there is a good chance of wiping the
disk and losing data. Therefore, first create a full disk backup before you
attempt anything else. Then also create a backup of your MBR for good measure
using dd, or sfdisk:

dd if=/dev/sda of=backup.mbr bs=512 count=1

or

sfdisk --dump /dev/sda > MBR_backup.txt

You can restore the above to get your existing disk with its existing MBR
partitions, if things do not work out as anticipated.

I am not aware of any scripts or automatic tools to do the MBR to GPT
conversion, but the approach you can use is to boot with a LiveUSB, convert
the partition table with gdisk[1] from MBR to GPT, recreate the partitions
with *exactly* the same start and finish sectors, make sure there is a FAT32
partition to be used as the UEFI boot partition and marked as partition type
EF00, before you install GRUB (or your bootloader) in this partition.

For a more detailed approach check the steps described by the developer of
gptfdisk[2].

[1] sys-apps/gptfdisk
[2] https://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
t***@sys-concept.com
2023-11-20 19:50:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Michael
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
Post by Michael
I transferred my old Sata SSD Intel-SSD from my ATOM computer to Iintel i5,
Asus H610 motherboard.
AHCI: Sata6G_1: Intel SSDSC2BF480A5 (this is the transferred drive
bootable) and
NVME: Samsung SSD 970 (this is new one not formated)
But under Bios Boot Menu my transferred intel ssd is not recognized as
bootable drive. Any solutions?
Is it a Boot Menu Setting?
I can post a picture.
The EFI boot on the MoBo must be set to Legacy Bios or EFI, depending on
the partition table type of your SSD (MBR Vs GPT).
To set this you should enable the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the
Boot Menu of the MoBo and then look into the Boot Configuration submenu
choices.
The CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the Boot Menu is greyed out.
It is Asus h610i Motherboard, and according for CSM to be enabled it needs
dedicated graphic card; I don't have one, using Intel i5 CPU graphic.
This is weird. What does a dedicated graphics card have to do with the
partitioning scheme of a storage device? :-/
I don't have access to your MoBo to know its quirks, so can't help with
specifics.
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
Is it possible to boot strap and re-partition /boot sector so the
motherboard will recognize it without dedicated graphic card?
fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'
will output "dos" for MBR, or "gpt" for GPT. I suspect your SSD is using MBR.
You could convert the MBR to GPT, but ... there is a good chance of wiping the
disk and losing data. Therefore, first create a full disk backup before you
attempt anything else. Then also create a backup of your MBR for good measure
dd if=/dev/sda of=backup.mbr bs=512 count=1
or
sfdisk --dump /dev/sda > MBR_backup.txt
You can restore the above to get your existing disk with its existing MBR
partitions, if things do not work out as anticipated.
I am not aware of any scripts or automatic tools to do the MBR to GPT
conversion, but the approach you can use is to boot with a LiveUSB, convert
the partition table with gdisk[1] from MBR to GPT, recreate the partitions
with *exactly* the same start and finish sectors, make sure there is a FAT32
partition to be used as the UEFI boot partition and marked as partition type
EF00, before you install GRUB (or your bootloader) in this partition.
For a more detailed approach check the steps described by the developer of
gptfdisk[2].
[1] sys-apps/gptfdisk
[2] https://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
Thanks for the fints, I'll try it this weekend, and post a feedback.
t***@sys-concept.com
2023-11-20 23:50:01 UTC
Permalink
On 11/20/23 11:26, Michael wrote:
[snip]
Post by Michael
fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'
will output "dos" for MBR, or "gpt" for GPT. I suspect your SSD is using MBR.
fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'

is showing "DOS" not MBR, does it change anything.

Booting from Gparted is showing:
Boot partition is - ext2
swap
and root/ - ext4

I was thinking to boot strap the disk /dev/sda/ and partition it to GPT/UEFI if I have gdisk installed on this computer.
Michael
2023-11-21 00:10:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
[snip]
Post by Michael
fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'
will output "dos" for MBR, or "gpt" for GPT. I suspect your SSD is using MBR.
fdisk -l /dev/sda | grep 'Disklabel type'
is showing "DOS" not MBR, does it change anything.
Please read again what I wrote above, if the partition table is of the MBR
type then the fdisk output is indeed "dos".
Post by t***@sys-concept.com
Boot partition is - ext2
swap
and root/ - ext4
I was thinking to boot strap the disk /dev/sda/ and partition it to GPT/UEFI
if I have gdisk installed on this computer.
The UEFI MoBo firmware will not boot any .efi image from an ext2 partition.
It requires a FAT32 partition in which GRUB must be installed:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_System_Partition
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Bootloader

Don't forget to create a backup of your data, before you embark on this
exercise.

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