On 10/22/26 2:16 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hello,

I switched my boot partition, changed its label from "legacy_boot" to "bios_grub" (grub-install wouldnt work otherwise).

I have a btrfs root, and my boot partition is ext4 (I don't know why someone did that, I just inherited it. But it worked in the past.)

I did a grub-install /dev/nvme0n1 and a grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/ grub.cfg and added the parition to my fstab to mount as /boot.

Now when I boot, it only shows "GRUB _" (with a blinking cursor after it), and I cannot input anything. I have a supermicro server and I am accessing the server on its remote console.

Can anyone help me debug this? (Supermicro remote console is also kinda shitty, tbh)

Best,
Lucienne



There are two issues involved here (my best guess reading between the lines of your post)

My assumption - since your boot partition was labeled "legacy_boot", you were booting MBR, or that partition originated from a disk that was.

Your system and data are now on dev/nvme0n1.

The issue I have had in a situation close to yours (moving / from spinning disks with MBR to /dev/nvme0n1)

The problem: most motherboards will only boot from /dev/nvme0n1 using EFI. Which means you will need to create an ESP (EFI) partition on /dev/nvme0n1 and configure the system to boot with grub_uefi.

The good news is I recently stumbled through this and with help from the community managed to get it under control --- and --- I documented the process here:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2311047

If your situation isn't 100% the same, you can hopefully find the help you need there. It covers the complete move of / from booting MBR on spinning disks, to /dev/nvme0n1 booting UEFI and explores the rational for placing the ESP at /efi instead of /boot/efi.

As with Ralf, this was my first push through UEFI booting from /dev/nvme0n1, and the first time you are faced with it, the amount of information is a bit like drinking from a fire-hose. Thankfully I haven't been caught by the secure-boot/firmware issue -- yet...

Once you sort out where the ESP should go, how to create it a mount it and the different options used with grub-install, it really isn't much different from setting it up the way you have for the past 20 years -- but getting to the point where you have collected all the subtle pieces of the puzzle in your mind to wrap your head around it -- takes time. Good luck.


--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.

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