MBR grub boot issue i had with 3.8.18 with Dell XPS 15 L502X, Fresh Install

Elive System Bugs
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#1

I used the automatic partitioning option while installing Elive 3.8.18. 64bit beta.

This option did not work out very well for me because on boot up my Dell system reports "no operating system found".

When I try to set up with gparted the installer reports that i needs a grub2 partition.

I still had no luck.

Usually i upgrade, and that works out well.

I am aware that you need a MBR of around 1mb or more.to allow grub and BIOS info.

Just wondering if anyone tryed a fresh install of Elive 3.8.18 64bit, and can replicate the issue i had?

At the moment i have a fresh install of stable Elive 3.0.6 which i paid for originally, and that install worked out ok, using auto partitioning.

#2

Looks like an EFI issue.
3.8.x supports that and will use if it's found, 3.0 only uses legacy boot.

So try turning EFI on in the bios and, with a bit of luck it'll find your bootloader.

#3

I had a look in the BIOS menus and found no EFI option.
The Dell XPS 15 L502X I have is getting on a bit in age. I Think .

i tried using this option when the installer allowed me to work in console.

"grub-install /dev/sda --target i386-pc" (with out the quotes)

and no luck

#8

I tried that command and found no info at all. So it must means I don't have a UEFI on my Dell XPS I suppose

#9

yeah, looks that way.
If it's that old then maybe 3.0.6 might in fact be the better option. :hot:

I'm still awed by how good it was.

#10

Mmmh thats very strange, the installer should pick the correct installation structure automatically based on how is actually your bios configured

Unfortunately Im looking at the installation reports and from your email ID there's only 1 install reported, with 3.8.18, but is not the one with "automated partitioning" but the one with gparted you did after, which reported some problem by installing grub because of your partitions structure... but this doesn't matter because seems like there's a problem with the automated partitioning

So, can you try to install again 3.8.18 with automated partitioning and the reports enabled? So I can check again the reports to see what happened with grub and how it was installed

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#11

To my memory, i don't recall the other partitions been formatted, just root, home and swap. no other was formatted. so two partitions left grub and some other partition.

Could that be the issue?

EDIT: i think the installer takes care of it all

#12

I tried again, and had the same issue.

So I'm back with elive 3.0.6. and that OS is amazing.
Also when i checked the 3.8.18 grub install, it reports no errors reported during installation.
Hopefully you got the report ?

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#14

just to report.

Upgrading elive-3.0.6 to .elive-3.8.18 worked well.

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