Upgraded BIOS - cannot see Solaris partition??


 
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Operating Systems Solaris Upgraded BIOS - cannot see Solaris partition??
# 1  
Old 09-27-2017
Upgraded BIOS - cannot see Solaris partition??

I have recently upgraded my Supermicro X10SAT motherboard. I have also a SSD with a Windows10 partition and a Solaris 11.3 partition. Upon boot I press F11 and choose which partition I want to boot into. But after the bios upgrade, I cannot see the Solaris partition when I press "F11" to choose which partition to boot into. I can only see Windows10 partition. Why is that? Anyone have a clue? Anything with GRUB?
# 2  
Old 09-28-2017
Perhaps this is relevant:

x86: Introducing GRUB 2 - Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems

Does your new BIOS release notes say anything about which version(s) of GRUB it will work with?

---------- Post updated 28-09-17 at 10:24 AM ---------- Previous update was 27-09-17 at 06:56 PM ----------

I've just looked up your motherboard and found it supports a BIOS/UEFI combo. So the 'BIOS' you've upgraded to is probably using default settings. You should disable 'Secure Boot'.
# 3  
Old 10-01-2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by hicksd8
Perhaps this is relevant:

x86: Introducing GRUB 2 - Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems

Does your new BIOS release notes say anything about which version(s) of GRUB it will work with?

---------- Post updated 28-09-17 at 10:24 AM ---------- Previous update was 27-09-17 at 06:56 PM ----------

I've just looked up your motherboard and found it supports a BIOS/UEFI combo. So the 'BIOS' you've upgraded to is probably using default settings. You should disable 'Secure Boot'.
Thanks for your help. Regarding Secure Boot, it seems my mobo does not support it:
http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=18134

Regarding GRUB, I dont even see the Solaris partition when pressing F11, where I normally choose which partition to boot from. So I can not even reach GRUB.

I booted into Win10 and looked at the disk via "disk manager", and wanted to see if I could mark the Solaris 11 partition as "active", but nope. I dont know what to do. Any suggestions?
# 4  
Old 10-01-2017
So you are saying that the box boots straight into Windows?

You can't interrupt GRUB boot by powering up and holding down a shift key until a GRUB menu appears?

If you boot from a CD/DVD with disk tools can you still see the Solaris partition?
# 5  
Old 10-01-2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by hicksd8
So you are saying that the box boots straight into Windows?

You can't interrupt GRUB boot by powering up and holding down a shift key until a GRUB menu appears?

If you boot from a CD/DVD with disk tools can you still see the Solaris partition?
Earlier, before BIOS update, I booted into GRUB and Solaris. If I wanted to boot into Windows10, I had to press F11 and select Windows partition. There I saw several partitions to boot from; Solaris 11, Windows 10, USB, DVD, etc.

After BIOS update, I dont see the Solaris partition in the boot list when pressing F11. This means I cannot get into GRUB. I guess the Solaris 11 partition is still on the disk, because I can see it in Windows Disk Manager.

If I boot from Solaris 11 usb disk, I can probably access the Solaris partition again. But I dont see how that helps me, as I can not even see the Solaris 11 partition when pressing F11?

I am investigating if BIOS update have messed up BIOS legacy mode vs UEFI mode. Is that why I cannot even see the Solaris partition?



UPDATE: here is a similar problem I think. Now I must transform these instructions to Solaris. How to do that.... Hmmmm... Ok, it seems that I must regenerate GRUB2? GRUB2 entries are destroyed?
Restore Ubuntu UEFI Boot Entries after BIOS Update - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki

It seems I can regenerate GRUB2 with "bootadm generate-menu" after booting from Solaris USB stick, using UEFI mode. Or booting into BIOS legacy mode. Either of them.
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26502_01/html/E28983/gkvif.html

Last edited by kebabbert; 10-01-2017 at 09:54 AM..
# 6  
Old 10-01-2017
Well I'd say that, for sure, the BIOS 'upgrade' has caused the problem. As with everything in I.T., the last thing you did almost certainly is the cause of your issue unless there's some enormous coincidence that some fault developed at exactly the same time.

My point is that if you are still using GRUB then pressing ESC on old GRUB or holding down a SHIFT key on new GRUB should drop you to a menu at the point that GRUB has control.

Neither of those work?

---------- Post updated at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:42 PM ----------

When changing from BIOS to UEFI usually 'secure boot' and Windows take charge of everything meaning you can only boot Windows unless you disable secure boot. Okay, I looked at the link that you posted and agree that you mobo doesn't support secure boot. Can you ask Supermicro? They must have seen this problem before.

---------- Post updated at 01:57 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:47 PM ----------

I know it's a different mobo, but..............

(solved) Supermicro X11SSH-F Bios R1.0a - wont offer boot from M.2 anymore - NAS4Free

---------- Post updated at 02:01 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:57 PM ----------

You might want to take a look at 'super grub' or 'super grub 2' (depending on which version you are using) which are bootable media for sorting out/reinstalling a working GRUB configuration.
# 7  
Old 10-01-2017
I cannot even see the Solaris partition when pressing F11, which means I cannot get access to GRUB2.

My plan is to boot from the Solaris install USB stick, mount the correct Solaris partition, and then regenerate GRUB2 entries using "bootadm generate-menu". Now I need to figure out the commands how to do all this....

I should be doing something like this, I guess:
-boot from USB
-mount old zpool as /a
-cd /a
-bootadm generate-menu <----- I hope this generates GRUB2 on /a
-reboot

Does this sound fine?


UPDATE: It seems I should use "bootadm install-bootloader" command instead of "bootadm generate-menu"? Hmmm......?
x86: Advanced GRUB Administration and Troubleshooting - Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems

In the Ubuntu link above I gave, they use "grub-install --bootloader-id ubuntu /dev/sda" so I maybe have to use the "bootadm install-bootloader" instead

UPDATE2: ok these are the commands, it seems. Taken from http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/...psb/index.html
First I boot from USB stick Solaris, and then type:

Code:
zpool import -R /a rpool
zfs list
zfs mount rpool/ROOT/sol10-u6 <- this contains the operating system
cd /a
bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool
zpool export rpool


Ok here is another set of commands:
zfs - Solaris 11: Accessing a pool on disk from live DVD? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
From the live CD desktop:
Code:
# zpool import -f rpool
# beadm list
be_find_current_be: failed to find current BE name
be_find_current_be: failed to find current BE name
BE                 Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created          
--                 ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------          
solaris            -      -          11.45M static 2011-10-22 00:30 
solaris-2          R      -          12.69G static 2011-10-21 21:04 
# mkdir /a
# beadm mount solaris-2 /a
# TERM=vt100
# export TERM
# cd /a
# bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool
# beadm umount solaris-2
# halt

Hmmm... these commands are used if I want to change a BE. But here I want to change the disk, not a BE. So these commands are not usable for me.


UPDATE3:
Ok i finally settled down for these commands. I am going to use these.
x86: Advanced GRUB Administration and Troubleshooting - Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems


Boot from Solaris media.
Import root pool:
Code:
# zpool import -f pool-name

Install the boot loader:
# bootadm install-bootloader [-f] -P pool-name

Export the root pool:
# zpool export pool-name

reboot the system.


UPDATE3:
I am testing right now, and I will write a cleaned up version if I solve this. This is just my scratch notes while testing this.
I have done this:
-booted from Solaris 11.3 usb media
Code:
-su, password is "solaris"
-zpool import -f rpool
-zpool status
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
  scan: none requested
config:

    NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
      c3t2d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

-bootadm list-menu -P rpool
root@solaris:~# bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool
bootadm: GRUB2 installation failed

And now I dont know what to do. man pages say I should add -M switch on x86.
Code:
root@solaris:~# bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool -M c3t2d0s0
bootadm: GRUB2 installation failed

Question: is the correct name of the partition really c3t2d0s0? Sometimes people exchange to c3t2d0p0

---------- Post updated at 10:03 AM ---------- Previous update was at 05:08 AM ----------

Ok, I think it boils down to this line, which I can not execute:
Code:
# bootadm install-bootloader -P rpool
bootadm: GRUB2 installation failed

Anyone knows why?

Last edited by kebabbert; 10-01-2017 at 01:11 PM..
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