Re: Installation troubles on UEFI/GPT laptop (possible bug?)

[Chavdar Ivanov <ci4ic4%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 22:48, James Browning <jamesbrowning137%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am attempting to install NetBSD 9.0 on my UEFI enabled laptop's GPT disk. This disk also contains
> windows and linux paritions, so I do not want to clear the partition table. I attempted installation
> using a usb drive with the install image 'NetBSD-9.0-amd64-uefi-install.img'. The laptop model is
> Acer Aspire E15 E5-575G-57D4.

I have been running NetBSD --current on an HP Envy-17 laptop with
EFI/GPT configuration ever since NetBSD gained that capability. The
laptop boots Windows 10 from the first - M.2 SATA - ssd, which I left
untouched.   I added a second disk - a 750GB rust - which I converted
to GPT (under Windows 10, as far as I remember), then I installed Suse
Tumbleweed, left some spare space for Windows, then installed Red Hat
7, after which I had some 100MB left over.  The installer didn't work
well with GPT at the time, I followed a sample sequence, which at the
time was published in a blog. What I am sure is that I didn't create
the gpt slices under Linux at all, I split the remaining 100GB into
the requisite EFI, data and swap partitions and installed the system
manually. Now of course the installer is much better at dealing with
it. BTW that 750GB disk has all three separate EFI partitions on it,
all system installers making their own. Later I set up rEFInd to
choose which system to boot; this worked well until HP took away the
option to select a specific .efi file as a default boot; now I
interrupt the process and manually select the .efi file I need for the
OS I am booting.

What I am suggesting is perhaps to destroy the last slice you have
already created and rerun the installer, pointing to the disk. The
manual installation is actually very easy - here is one recipe:
https://archive.unitedbsd.com/t/netbsd-desktop-part-1-manual-netbsd-installation-on-gpt-uefi/284

(Obviously do not follow literally - do not 'gpt destroy' - but the
rest is usable, perhaps sans the splitting of /usr, /var and /home).


>
> I have attempted many methods to correctly format the partition, but nothing seems to be working,
> and I am not sure if this is the result of bugs or user ignorance. From my perspective the problem
> appears to be Sysinst not cooperating with my GPT.
>
> My steps to attempt this installation are:
>
> 1. In linux, use gparted to create a new partiton which will contain NetBSD, I figured the file system
>    type I select is arbitrary because Sysinst will format the partition to FFS
>
> 2. The resulting partition table looks like :
>
>         Disk /dev/sda: 238.49 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
>         Disk model: Micron_1100_MTFD
>         Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>         Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>         I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>         Disklabel type: gpt
>         Disk identifier: C3E0E834-7CB3-463F-B8B2-3075FC41D216
>
>         Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
>         /dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800  100M EFI System
>         /dev/sda2     206848    239615     32768   16M Microsoft reserved
>         /dev/sda3     239616 289686755 289447140  138G Microsoft basic data
>         /dev/sda4  498020352 500117503   2097152    1G Windows recovery environment
>         /dev/sda5  330246144 498020351 167774208   80G Linux filesystem
>         /dev/sda6  289687552 330246143  40558592 19.3G Linux filesystem
>
>         Partition table entries are not in disk order.
>
> The 19.3G /dev/sda6 partition is the target partion for NetBSD
>
> 3. I then shutdown and boot into Sysinst and take the following steps:
>    Select "a: Install NetBSD on hard disk"
>    Select "b: yes"
>    I then select the partition I reserved for NetBSD
>    Sysinst asks if I wish to continue, I select "b: yes"
>    Systisnt asks "The selected partition does not seem to have a valid file system. Do you want to newfs it?"
>    I select "b: yes"
>    I then get the following error:  "Status: Command Failed, Command: /sbin/newfs -V2 -O2 /dev//rdk5/,
>                                      newfs: /dev//rdk5/ partition type is not '4.2BSD'"
>
>    Followed by the error: "Status: Command Failed, Command: /sbin/mount -o async /dev/dk5 /targetroot/
>                            mount_ext2fs: /dev/dk5 on /targetroot: Read-only file system"
>
>    Sysinst then returns the main menu
>
> 4. After that I tried to use to the utility menu to format the partition like so:
>    I select "e: utility menu" -> "d: partiton a disk"
>    I select the target partition which at this point is still listed as Ext2 file system
>    I select "a: edit" then I change type to "FFSv2" and I change mount, install, and newfs all to "yes"
>    I change the label to "4.2BSD"
>    When I select "Save Changes" the following error occurs:
>
>         "Status: Command failed
>          Command: gpt label -b 289687552 -T 49f48d5a-b10e-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648 wd0"
>
> 5. After that I repeat the steps I listed in section 3, but instead of producing any error, I simply
>    get kicked back to the main menu with no messages, but NetBSD is not installed in the partition.
>    However when I return to linux the parition fs type has been changed to ufs.
>
>
> Any ideas on what is going on here? I really have no idea if it is me or Sysinst that is in the wrong here.
> I have also tried manually formatting the partition using the Sysinst shell and trying out the gpt and disklabel
> commands, but they always return errors such as "device busy" or "ioctl misuse" (this is a paraphrase, I can't
> recall the exact error). I am certain I'm using the commands on the correct device as I always ensure it matches
> the device listed in the partition utility.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read this and potentially help me,
> James Browning
>
>
>


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