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How can one invoke grub-install from the debian netinst image? Or, does one need the live cd.

(Situation: two disks: one degraded btrfs raid 1, another a blank disk I can install a new OS on, but which I can't boot from due to mobo. Currently upon booting, a black screen says "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device"; which program is saying this? Is this a GRUB message I can't find in the sourcecode? What is it trying to say; is it "failing successfully" or failing at a certain point?)

I started the 'rescue' mode, selected "launch shell" (no root partition) when prompted, it set up a shell, but the only command is called grub-installer (not grub-install) which doesn't seem to do anything.

Thank you.

ninjagecko
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1 Answers1

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Answering this own question:

  • installed linux on a new partition on the unbootable disk
  • selected that as the active root partition in the debian graphical rescue
  • did grub-install on the bootable disk, /dev/sda
  • confirmed by doing efibootmgr /dev/sda -v, then checking the grub being pointed to was the one in the appropriate partition by checking ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid

The BootOrder can be set with the appropriate options in efibootmgr -h it seems (compare with first line of verbose output).

It seems, barring some strange way to bootstrap up a system in RAM from the netinst image, that you might need a live CD or USB, or to install an OS (which you can't do from a USB to itself).

Further question:

If someone knows how to install a fallback (to say the grub on /dev/sda1 that is not being detected), if they could post their own answer (or edit this and make it community wiki, or post a comment), that would be great thank you.

ninjagecko
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