On Monday, 17 March 2025 02:34:47 Greenwich Mean Time Dale wrote:

Grant Edwards wrote:

On 2025-03-16, Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> wrote:

Ugh! I didn't provide a comprehensive answer - sorry. All this MBR
nostalgia I've been trying to forget. LOL!

If you are installing GRUB on a GPT disk, which is meant to boot on
a legacy BIOS MoBo, you *must* create a BIOS Boot Partition (gdisk
code EF02). GRUB will drop its boot.img in the disk's MBR (sector
0) then would try to install its core.img in sector 1, exactly where
GPT has stored its own primary table. With a BIOS Boot Partition
this clash is averted.

You /can/ use an embedded block list to install legacy BIOS boot mode
grub using an MBR table without a BIOS Boot Partition, but don't do
it. It requires manual intervention any time grub gets updated, so it's
a pain to maintain. The "right" answer is to create a BIOS boot
partition. Then it will "just work".

I can second that, from experience. I might add while I'm typing, I'm getting ready to update my backups. I just booted the NAS box. I hit
the power button on the way to my chair. By the time I read your reply,
it was already sitting at the login prompt. I think it boots a little faster. Having the OS on a SSD might be a little faster.

While I like the new GPT way, I really need to use the old way on the
older hardware. I just keep forgetting to. :/

Dale

:-) :-)

Details on size recommendation for storing GRUB Stage 2 image is details here, including the parted stanza for creating a BIOS Boot Partition on GPT disks:

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html#BIOS-installation

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