Booting 2.14 frugal Install changes partition type to 93

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nicom
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Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2006, 02:15
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Booting 2.14 frugal Install changes partition type to 93

#1 Post by nicom »

I have been running Puppy 2.01 as a full HD install on a PII 350 Mhz machine. It is loaded on to hda1 along with grub for the boot. I recently installed 2.14 as frugal onto hdb1. It boots successfully to 2.14 but in the process it changes the partition type of hda1 to Ameoba (93) and so subsequent boots will not work because it cannot see grub. I get around it by booting to CD and manually changing the partition type to Linux (83) using cfdisk option in pdisk. The effect is very reproducible.

Can anyone explain?

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WhoDo
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Re: Changes to Partion Type

#2 Post by WhoDo »

nicom wrote:I recently installed 2.14 as frugal onto hdb1. It boots successfully to 2.14 but in the process it changes the partition type of hda1 to Ameoba (93) and so subsequent boots will not work because it cannot see grub. I get around it by booting to CD and manually changing the partition type to Linux (83) using cfdisk option in pdisk. The effect is very reproducible.

Can anyone explain?
I can't explain but I can verify what you say is correct. I haven't said anything before now in case it was a hardware issue with my laptop, but clearly it isn't.

I got around it by putting the Grub boot files in a Linux partition that isn't Puppy. It doesn't seem to change them. That way Grub will always find its files in a Linux partition. OTOH, Puppy doesn't seem to care what the partition table says, as it does its own check on the partition format when it boots. All of my Puppy partitions - 2.14, 2.13 and 2.12 - are now telling me they're Amoeba (93) instead of Linux (83), so I suspect the problem is with the version of Grub that came with Puppy 2.14.

This post should ideally be in BUGS, so it would be useful if one of the mods could move it please. TIA.

Cheers

nicom
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2006, 02:15
Location: Melbourne, Australia

#3 Post by nicom »

Thanks for that. At least now I know it's not hardware related. Your idea of a separate grub partition is a good one so I will give that a try.

GuestToo
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#4 Post by GuestToo »

what is in Grub's menu.lst file? ... you may have it configured to hide a partition ... Grub hides partitions by changing the partition type

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WhoDo
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#5 Post by WhoDo »

GuestToo wrote:what is in Grub's menu.lst file? ... you may have it configured to hide a partition ... Grub hides partitions by changing the partition type
Aha! Indeed I HAVE configured Grub to hide certain Puppy partitions when I am not booting to them. G2, you have solved the mystery for me! :oops:

nicom
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Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2006, 02:15
Location: Melbourne, Australia

#6 Post by nicom »

My grub file also hides partitions but each entry unhides the relevant partition. I will try removing the hide/unhides tonight.

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WhoDo
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#7 Post by WhoDo »

nicom wrote:My grub file also hides partitions but each entry unhides the relevant partition. I will try removing the hide/unhides tonight.
When you hide one of those partitions you are also hiding Grub's boot files (/boot/grub), so it can't find things. The only way around is still to install the grub boot files to another partition that doesn't get hidden.

Simply unhiding won't work because Puppy will then pick up on the first pup_save.2fs file it comes across, regardless of which partition you boot. Doesn't matter if you have only 2, and 1 is a full install i.e. no pup_save.2fs file. That partition doesn't need to be hidden, so it could also be used for Grub's boot files directory.

Hope that helps.

nicom
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2006, 02:15
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Booting 2.14 frugal Install changes partition type SOLVED

#8 Post by nicom »

It works.

I got rid of my old grub with fdisk /mbr and installed a new grub on a new dedicated partition. I now have 2 functioning puppies. As you point out, hiding hda1 also hid my grub files on the subsequent boots.

Thanks for your help.

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