The /dev/sda3 Partion Mystery

[wa4chq]

Good morning all....

Could someone tell me if removing /dev/sda3 will be disastrous?  I'm thinking that it's a leftover from whatever was installed on the unallocated section of the drive and it's fine to remove cuz when I try to mount it, I get this:

Quote

 wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3, missing codepage or helper program, or other error

I would like use the free space to maybe dual boot arch or alpine...and they may be a topic later.

Thanks and have a great day....

 

Edited December 12, 2024 by wa4chq

[Hedon James]

i would've guessed that sda3 is your swap partition, but the filesystem type isn't right for swap.  i'm not sure what "grub2 core.img" file system type is, and I see your bios_grub flag, so this is obviously grub related.  But it's only 1MB and doesn't seem to be ANYTHING on it?

 

Are you sure you want to bother for 1MB?  Is any of this helpful for you?

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/502287/what-are-the-differences-between-the-purposes-of-core-img-and-files-in-boot

 

EDIT:  your gPartEd screenshot reflects a GPT partition table.  I don't think I'd eliminate that sda3 partition, as I think you'll be destroying your GRUB boot ability; and even if you're successful, you only gain 1MB.  I'd leave it, and just put your dual-boot install on the unallocated 200GB area.  JMO...

 

[securitybreach]

Yeah, I would normally think it would be a boot partition but going by your EFI partition, I would think it would be safe to delete.

[sunrat]

It is a BIOS boot partition, needed when you use BIOS (Legacy) boot on a system with a GPT partition table - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#BIOS_systems

[wa4chq]

Thanks for the replies and info.  I'm thinking it appeared when I tried installing Archbang....which didn't go well...in fact, it didn't go at all.  I'm inclined to believe that it's safe to remove, but as HJ's said...it's not really worth deleting if in doubt.

If I were to try and install Arch, I might end up with the same problem as before.  I had issues on the laptop messing up my boot ****e when I tried installing Endevour along side MX.  I lost the ability to boot MX....no problem booting Endevour.  Last night, I found a vid that used 'grub-customizer' and 'os-prober' to make the repair.  That worked on the laptop.  I'm able to boot both now.  Maybe I should do a little more research before I attempt putting something alongside LM, which is the OS on the desktop.  I'm not as young and brave as I used to be...lol...unless you all can convince me otherwise....

[Hedon James]

1 hour ago, wa4chq said:

Thanks for the replies and info.  I'm thinking it appeared when I tried installing Archbang....which didn't go well...in fact, it didn't go at all.  I'm inclined to believe that it's safe to remove, but as HJ's said...it's not really worth deleting if in doubt.

If I were to try and install Arch, I might end up with the same problem as before.  I had issues on the laptop messing up my boot ****e when I tried installing Endevour along side MX.  I lost the ability to boot MX....no problem booting Endevour.  Last night, I found a vid that used 'grub-customizer' and 'os-prober' to make the repair.  That worked on the laptop.  I'm able to boot both now.  Maybe I should do a little more research before I attempt putting something alongside LM, which is the OS on the desktop.  I'm not as young and brave as I used to be...lol...unless you all can convince me otherwise....

I'm a virtualizer, so I won't be nudging you very hard.  With that said....here' my pitch:  format the unallocated space as EXT4, add Virtual Machine Manager, and label your newly formatted dev/sda4 for "VM Storage".  LOL!

[wa4chq]

6 minutes ago, Hedon James said:

I'm a virtualizer, so I won't be nudging you very hard.  With that said....here' my pitch:  format the unallocated space as EXT4, add Virtual Machine Manager, and label your newly formatted dev/sda4 for "VM Storage".  LOL!

Excellent idea!  lol.  What I really need to do is to stick with what I have and quit the dual boot mess.  The truth is, I do it and end up not using it or liking it so much that I don't use the other. This is where VM shines....

Hope you have a great Christmas!

[Hedon James]

1 minute ago, wa4chq said:

Excellent idea!  lol.  What I really need to do is to stick with what I have and quit the dual boot mess.  The truth is, I do it and end up not using it or liking it so much that I don't use the other. This is where VM shines....

Hope you have a great Christmas!

Same here.  Once upon a time, dual boot was the tool that allowed me to jump to Linux.  I could access my Windows Data by mounting my Windows drive and cruising the directory structure for my data.  And the failsafe fallback was to boot back into Windows, because it was still there, still working, and still viable.  That knowledge sold me on making the leap.

 

In reality, I never NEEDED to boot back into Windows, and I could count on 2 hands the number of times I actually DID boot back into Windows, mostly just to keep Windows updated.  I realized it was a PITA to shutdown Linux, boot into Windows, do what needed done in Windows, shut Windows back down, and reboot into Linux.  That's about when I stumbled onto VirtualBox and realized THAT was the solution to my 1st world problem.  Haven't looked back since.  I know some folks on here aren't fans of virtualization and VMs, and view it as another layer of potential troubleshooting, and technically they're not wrong.  But that hasn't been my exerience, and I can say it is definitely the right tool for me and my workflows.  FWIW...

 

Hit us up if you need any assistance!

[sunrat]

Dual boot is easy!

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB  537MB   fat32           ESP                           boot, esp
 2      538MB   555MB  16.8MB                  Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      555MB   222GB  222GB   ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      222GB   223GB  570MB   ntfs                                          hidden, diag
 5      223GB   256GB  33.6GB  ext4            DEBIAN
 6      256GB   261GB  4404MB  linux-swap(v1)
 8      261GB   360GB  99.7GB  ext4            BOOKWORM
 9      360GB   403GB  42.0GB  ext4            STUDIOBUSTER
10      403GB   581GB  178GB   ext4            TRIXIE
11      581GB   633GB  52.4GB  btrfs           OPEN_SUSE
12      633GB   680GB  47.2GB  ext4            siduction_root
13      680GB   725GB  44.1GB  ext4            AVL-MXE21
14      725GB   758GB  33.6GB  ext4            BODHI
15      758GB   801GB  42.9GB  ext4            AVL-MXE23

 

[wa4chq]

35 minutes ago, sunrat said:

Dual boot is easy!

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB  537MB   fat32           ESP                           boot, esp
 2      538MB   555MB  16.8MB                  Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      555MB   222GB  222GB   ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      222GB   223GB  570MB   ntfs                                          hidden, diag
 5      223GB   256GB  33.6GB  ext4            DEBIAN
 6      256GB   261GB  4404MB  linux-swap(v1)
 8      261GB   360GB  99.7GB  ext4            BOOKWORM
 9      360GB   403GB  42.0GB  ext4            STUDIOBUSTER
10      403GB   581GB  178GB   ext4            TRIXIE
11      581GB   633GB  52.4GB  btrfs           OPEN_SUSE
12      633GB   680GB  47.2GB  ext4            siduction_root
13      680GB   725GB  44.1GB  ext4            AVL-MXE21
14      725GB   758GB  33.6GB  ext4            BODHI
15      758GB   801GB  42.9GB  ext4            AVL-MXE23

 

Piece of cake!  lol

[raymac46]

1. 2022 Chromebook - ChromeOS
2. 2021 Dell desktop - Windows 11
3. 2020 ASUS laptop - Windows 11
4. 2016 HP Pavilion laptop - Linux Mint
5. 2014 Lenovo Flex2 laptop - EndeavourOS
6. 2013 Thinkpad 430 - Debian
7. 2013 Custom desktop - Linux Mint
8. 2012 Toshiba netbook - Arch Linux
9. 2007 Dell desktop - Spiral Linux

Multibooting is easy. 

[sunrat]

2 hours ago, raymac46 said:

1. 2022 Chromebook - ChromeOS
2. 2021 Dell desktop - Windows 11
3. 2020 ASUS laptop - Windows 11
4. 2016 HP Pavilion laptop - Linux Mint
5. 2014 Lenovo Flex2 laptop - EndeavourOS
6. 2013 Thinkpad 430 - Debian
7. 2013 Custom desktop - Linux Mint
8. 2012 Toshiba netbook - Arch Linux
9. 2007 Dell desktop - Spiral Linux

Multibooting is easy. 

 

That's not multibooting, that's hoarding. Call Marie Kondo quick!

[wa4chq]

11 hours ago, sunrat said:

It is a BIOS boot partition, needed when you use BIOS (Legacy) boot on a system with a GPT partition table - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#BIOS_systems

OK...and thanks for the link.  I've got some reading to do to try and understand why it happened.

[raymac46]

You call it hoarding..I call it responsible PC stewardship. Horses for courses.

[wa4chq]

For comparison, here are the different partitions on my laptop.  Both boot fine.  I don't recall when I installed MX....Endeavour was installed maybe a month and a half ago.  MX wasn't the first Linux distro installed on this laptop....but on this drive, I don't see the small EFI partition like I see on the desktop.

[Hedon James]

3 hours ago, wa4chq said:

For comparison, here are the different partitions on my laptop.  Both boot fine.  I don't recall when I installed MX....Endeavour was installed maybe a month and a half ago.  MX wasn't the first Linux distro installed on this laptop....but on this drive, I don't see the small EFI partition like I see on the desktop.

This appears to be an MBR partitioning scheme, while EFI is for GPT partitioning. 

[wa4chq]

24 minutes ago, Hedon James said:

This appears to be an MBR partitioning scheme, while EFI is for GPT partitioning. 

I wonder if it's a leftover??  When I originally bought the laptop, it had windows onboard.  I partitioned the HD and had it riding along with Slackware.  Again as mentioned, I don't recall all the times I partitioned and had other distros installed and I don't know what became of Windows and I don't remember what came after Slack.  My laptop is without the EFI partition and I'm thinking that since MX is similiar to Mint, that extra partition, sda1 on the desktop isn't being used...it's just there.....   does that make sense?

[wa4chq]

the first image is /boot/grub directory from the lappy and the other is the /boot/grub directory from the desktop.....

 

[wa4chq]

I'm thinking that sda1 isn't being used and is left over from something else.....not that I'd make any mistakes...lol....

 

[Hedon James]

18 minutes ago, wa4chq said:

I wonder if it's a leftover??  When I originally bought the laptop, it had windows onboard.  I partitioned the HD and had it riding along with Slackware.  Again as mentioned, I don't recall all the times I partitioned and had other distros installed and I don't know what became of Windows and I don't remember what came after Slack.  My laptop is without the EFI partition and I'm thinking that since MX is similiar to Mint, that extra partition, sda1 on the desktop isn't being used...it's just there.....   does that make sense?

That's possible.  It's also possible you overwrote Windows (presumably EFI/GPT) entirely.  Then installed Endeavour as dual boot, and GRUB moved the boot flag to Endeavour.  Your MX partition isn't mounted, but that could be a convention/quirk of GRUB and MBR.  You should be able to mount that rootMX partition and look at the directory contents.

 

Your earlier post with screenshot, sunrat indicated it was a stub for EFI/GPT in legacy/MBR compatibility mode.  That makes sense.

 

I think you're seeing the differences between BIOS/MBR, EFI/GPT, and EFI/COSM compatibility mode.

[wa4chq]

Hey HJ....MX works fine with Endeavour....they both are on the laptop....on the desktop I have a working Mint.  This is where the I'm having problems recognizing a new Endeavour install....

[wa4chq]

Also, the desktop was given to me by my older bro when the company he works for got new desktops......it's a Dell..... their tech wiped the hard drive, so when I got it, I just installed Linux.  Maybe the EFI thang was something lingering after the tech wiped the drive????

[Hedon James]

14 hours ago, wa4chq said:

Also, the desktop was given to me by my older bro when the company he works for got new desktops......it's a Dell..... their tech wiped the hard drive, so when I got it, I just installed Linux.  Maybe the EFI thang was something lingering after the tech wiped the drive????

That's possible.  And obviously the COSM (legacy boot compatibility) is enabled.  So it's also possible you have Mint installed with EFI config; and Endeavour installed with MBR config (or vice versa).  And then MAYBE you turned off the COSM boot option, so Endeavour no longer boots.  Just spitballing here...

 

Is there anything critical on that desktop?  If it was me, I'd back up ALL my data on that drive; then fire up that GPartEd disk and wipe out ALL the partitions.  Then I'd make sure the COSM/Legacy Boot option is turned OFF in the BIOS/EFI.  Then I'd re-install with the EFI/GPT partition scheme.  When COSM/Legacy Boot is enabled, it's very easy to boot from BIOS or EFI; if you're not paying attention to your boot selection, it's easy to choose the wrong one.  And whichever one you boot with, that's how the installer will install it.  FWIW...

[wa4chq]

4 minutes ago, Hedon James said:

That's possible.  And obviously the COSM (legacy boot compatibility) is enabled.  So it's also possible you have Mint installed with EFI config; and Endeavour installed with MBR config (or vice versa).  And then MAYBE you turned off the COSM boot option, so Endeavour no longer boots.  Just spitballing here...

 

Is there anything critical on that desktop?  If it was me, I'd back up ALL my data on that drive; then fire up that GPartEd disk and wipe out ALL the partitions.  Then I'd make sure the COSM/Legacy Boot option is turned OFF in the BIOS/EFI.  Then I'd re-install with the EFI/GPT partition scheme.  When COSM/Legacy Boot is enabled, it's very easy to boot from BIOS or EFI; if you're not paying attention to your boot selection, it's easy to choose the wrong one.  And whichever one you boot with, that's how the installer will install it.  FWIW...

I thought the same thing about what you said regarding backing up important stuff and do a complete makeover.....re: the bios...it is not set to Legacy.  The install for Endeavour was attempted just the other day...yesterday in fact and it hasn't never booted, GRUB only shows Mint.  Tnx for the input.....I'm also thinking to do the backup and for a test, just remove sda1 and see what happens.

[Hedon James]

48 minutes ago, wa4chq said:

I thought the same thing about what you said regarding backing up important stuff and do a complete makeover.....re: the bios...it is not set to Legacy.  The install for Endeavour was attempted just the other day...yesterday in fact and it hasn't never booted, GRUB only shows Mint.  Tnx for the input.....I'm also thinking to do the backup and for a test, just remove sda1 and see what happens.

I'm having a hard time tracking you, as you're switching back and forth between machines.  Sounds like one is MX & Endeavour and the other is Mint & Endeavour?

 

In each case, make sure you can boot into the most recently installed OS (Endeavour?), as GRUB gets overwritten by the latest installation, based on what os-prober finds on the disk.  Obviously, sda1 is the first install, so make sure you can boot from sda2 before you delete sda1.  Once you verify the 2nd installation works, then go ahead and delete sda1.  And when you reboot back into your remaining OS, don't forget to update grub of that OS so the grub entry to boot Mint (or MX?) is overwritten.

[wa4chq]

2 hours ago, Hedon James said:

I'm having a hard time tracking you, as you're switching back and forth between machines. 

 

LOL...sorry about that, I thought I was clear as mud...lol...My laptop has Endeavour and MX....works fine.  The desktop has Mint and the blank partion + sda1...the mystery partition.  It boots fine, but only to Mint...grub does not list Endeavour When I tried to install Endeavour yesterday on the desktop, grub only shows Mint.  When I tried os-probe, it only listed Mint.

UPDATE:  OK, I reinstalled Endeavour and now it shows up on Grub menu along with Mint, but it doesn't boot.  When booting Endeavour, I get

Quote

error: file '/boot/vmliuz-linux' not found     error: 'you need to load the kernel first'

I checked bios, I made sure 'secure boot' was disabled.  Looking at the grub.cfg, it shows just enough to have Endeavour appear in the menu but not enough for the kernel to boot.  I think the last time I did any grub editing was in the 2k.  If I go over to the laptop which has a working Mx and Endeavour and look at the grub.cfg, I can see the correct format.  So, back to the desktop and that weird /sda1....I still thinking that's causing the problem.  I forgot to mention that Endeavour has installed to /sda3....I can mount and explore it.

Edited December 16, 2024 by wa4chq

[Hedon James]

2 hours ago, wa4chq said:

LOL...sorry about that, I thought I was clear as mud...lol...My laptop has Endeavour and MX....works fine.  The desktop has Mint and the blank partion + sda1...the mystery partition.  It boots fine, but only to Mint...grub does not list Endeavour When I tried to install Endeavour yesterday on the desktop, grub only shows Mint.  When I tried os-probe, it only listed Mint.

UPDATE:  OK, I reinstalled Endeavour and now it shows up on Grub menu along with Mint, but it doesn't boot.  When booting Endeavour, I get

I checked bios, I made sure 'secure boot' was disabled.  Looking at the grub.cfg, it shows just enough to have Endeavour appear in the menu but not enough for the kernel to boot.  I think the last time I did any grub editing was in the 2k.  If I go over to the laptop which has a working Mx and Endeavour and look at the grub.cfg, I can see the correct format.  So, back to the desktop and that weird /sda1....I still thinking that's causing the problem.  I forgot to mention that Endeavour has installed to /sda3....I can mount and explore it.

can you mount Endeavour partion, chroot to Endeavour and update grub from there? 

 

EDIT:  seems like this might have some relevance for you  https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/update-grub-and-os-prober-not-working/19147

[wa4chq]

Just now, Hedon James said:

can you mount Endeavour partion, chroot to Endeavour and update grub from there? 

 

EDIT:  seems like this might have some relevance for you  https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/update-grub-and-os-prober-not-working/19147

Yes, I can mount Endeavour partion.....but, I'm on to something.....I opened up the tower and have found the online manual for it.  The manual says it can hold a 3.5" hd or a pair of 2.5"....I have one spare 2.5" hd...not sure if I actually need two but we'll find out.  For now, I've disconnected the 3.5"HD and put in the 2.5".  I've also booted Endeavour live.  I'm gonna see what the HD looks like and maybe try and do a clean wipe and then try installing Endeavour on it......at least that's the plan.  Don't know if your are a religious man, but if you are...please pray for me....lol

[wa4chq]

[wa4chq]

LOL....I received my certificate of occupancy about 3 years ago, which meant I could move in to my new house.  I still had to hang interior doors, trim, paint etc.  Well I did most of that until Covid hit and price of material shot up.....well that is behind us but.....I kinda took a break.  So here am, playing with Linux (again) and I still need to finish projects on the house....lol.  Hey, I'm retired, so what's the rush, right?