I have a problem with a brand new Dell laptop. BioLinux was installed on it without making the necessary changes on BIOS. The installation was completed successfully but the BIOS system cant find the OS after rebooting the machine.
I have tried to modify the BIOS setting with no luck this far. I was hoping someone here could guide me through the process
Thanks in advance
What, precisely, have you tried?
We'll need more information on your laptop than "brand new". Model would help.
This is the laptop I am referring to:
I tried to modify the booting order so it can recognize the OS. However, I cannot see Biolinux listed despite of completing the installation successfully.
This can have a lot of reasons and we have to start somewhere: You probably can boot from some CD/DVD/USB-Stick. Do that, open a command window and type parted /dev/sda
, then press "p" (for "print") to list the partition table. The picture you see shoud be similar to this one:
Model: ATA ST500LT012-1DG14 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 3146kB 2097kB primary
2 3146kB 2151MB 2147MB primary ext3 boot
3 2151MB 500GB 498GB primary lvm
Notice there is a 2G boot-partititon formatted as ext3. Only the rest is LVM-controlled. Linux can't boot from LVM-partitions (yet). If your layout looks very different then post it here.
I hipe this helps.
bakunin
Hi.
Here is output from fdisk
within a Bio-Linux system:
$ fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 104.9 GB, 104857600000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12748 cylinders, total 204800000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000830ae
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 200605695 100301824 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 200607742 204797951 2095105 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 200607744 204797951 2095104 82 Linux swap / Solaris
On a Virtual Machine run within virtualbox:
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 3.13.0-63-generic, x86_64
Distribution : Bio-Linux (8; Ubuntu 14.04.2)
However, I have not used Bio-Linux sufficiently to be able to provide help much beyond this. Regrettably, I also seem to have misplaced my install notes.
I suggest you be more precise about ... cant find the OS after rebooting the machine by providing the exact message(s) you see when trying to boot.
Good luck ... cheers, drl
Guys
This is what I am getting when booting from a bootable USB stick (biolinux):
$ parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 538MB 537MB fat32 boot
2 538kB 994MB 993MB ext4
3 994MB 1000GB 6348GB linux-swap(v1)
$ fdisk -l
Warning: GPT (GUID Parttition Table) detected on '/dev/sda/'! The util fdisk doesn
't support GPT. Use GNU Parted
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 10000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf6552963
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT
Parttition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary
Disk /dev/sdb: 15.5 GB, 15479597056 bytes
32 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14996 cylinders, total 30233588 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x010a5806
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 30231935 15115936+ b W95 FAT32
- Post updated 06-14-16 at 10:06 PM -
Solved the problem disabling the boot security and enabling legacy. Finally, I rearranged the boot sequence to 1) USB 2) HDD and proceeded to reinstall Biolinux. Worked like a charm!
There are several points to discuss:
Some BIOSes (i don't know if your Dell system is among them) are "configured" to need a Windows-partition as the first one. Actually a colleague fo mine had such a system and it took us some time to figure out what was wrong. Therefore the following might lead to an (from disk) unbootable laptop. Continue only if you have some "rescue disk" or something such. Usually there is some disk where you can recreate the factory setup, wiping out everything you wrote to the disk. If you have such a disk, TEST IT to know it works, only then continue because what i suggest you do is potentially disruptive. You test your plan B to work before even attempt to execute plan A.
In a normal case, where the above is not the case, your partition tale looks like there is a leftover from the probably factory-installed Windows. Run parted
to remove all these partitions. Once the disk is completely clean reboot and start the installation of your distro. It should contain provisions for partitioning the disk.
If you need to partition by hand (or want to use the "expert mode" many installation routines offer for more control), here is a short guide to partitioning:
Start with a primary partition mounted on "/boot" as the first one of the type "ext3". It needs only 1GB (perhaps not even that much, 128MB should be sufficient), because in the installed system only the kernel image to boot and some GRUB-configuration files will be there. Even if you have several different kernel images to select from: they become hardly bigger than 1-2 MB apiece. Historically Linux could not boot from partitions located on disk cylinders 1023 and above, so out of habit i put this partition always at the very front. Because it won't change over time this is a very good place anyway. "ext3" is because Linux cannot boot from LVM-controlled logical partitions. This partition will also get the "boot" flag.
Then create a LVM partition (type "ext4") using the rest of the disk. We will do everything further within this partition.
The following "logical volumes" will be created inside the LVM partition and are not partitions in their own right. I will tell you the names (=mountpoints) and sizes and give you a short explanation for each.
<swap> size=your amount of RAM
Whenever the main memory of the system is exhausted some disk space previously set aside is used to emulate memory. This is called "swap" or "paging" space and you should see it like the jerry can of your car: it will be good to be there if you once in a while need it but do not rely on it and under no circumstance count that among the usable amount of gas you have. Your normal operation should not need any swap and if it does you do not need a bigger swap, you need more RAM.
/ size ~ 20GB
This is for your system. It is good style to separate application and system, so this will only hold the operating system, not the applications.
/altroot size ~ 20GB
I like always have a second OS installation in reserve, in case i manage to destroy one. This is for this second system. "/" and "/altroot" will reciprocally mount each other (if "/altroot" boots as "/", it will mount what is "/" normally as "/altroot") and everything else at the same place.
/home size ??
This is for your data. I'd start with as little as possible, because it is easier to grow this FS than it is to diminish it. Note that /home is for your personal data. If you have application data you should perhaps create a separate filesystem for it and use that.
Other FS you might need depend on what you want to do with your system. If you have a certain application i'd create 2 filesystems (at least) for it: one for the application binaries, its configuration and other files needed to run it. Another FS for its data. This way you can update your application while having the data unmounted and hence save from accidental manipulation.
Some general remarks: you should always try to be as flexible as possible. This means especially to give logical volumes the least possible amount of space. This way you have the most diskspace available to still distribute where necessary. If you need more you can always increase a particular FS in size.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
Bakunin
This is the output after reinstalling Biolinux 8 on my new laptop:
$ parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 994GB 994GB primary ext4 boot
2 994GB 1000GB 6347MB extended
3 994GB 1000GB 6347MB logical linux-swap(v1)
As I said, Biolinux is now running flawlessly.