After 7 long years, the peace of mind feature on my Velociraptor HD had finally given up the ghost.
So I get a new SSD, that's slightly smaller but still a large multiple of what I actually need the drive for. =P To be fully trendy (and finally wanting to put the 1980's to bed) I try to set up UEFI on gpt partitions, so the new boot partition, which is also excessively large, now has a EFI directory. ############################ localhost new_uefi # tree -L 2 . ├── config-4.6.7 ├── EFI │ ├── BOOT │ └── gentoo ├── grub │ ├── default │ ├── device.map │ ├── e2fs_stage1_5 │ ├── fat_stage1_5 │ ├── ffs_stage1_5 │ ├── fonts │ ├── grub.cfg │ ├── grubenv │ ├── i386-pc │ ├── iso9660_stage1_5 │ ├── jfs_stage1_5 │ ├── locale │ ├── minix_stage1_5 │ ├── reiserfs_stage1_5 │ ├── splash.xpm.gz │ ├── stage1 │ ├── stage2 │ ├── stage2_eltorito │ ├── themes │ ├── ufs2_stage1_5 │ ├── vstafs_stage1_5 │ ├── x86_64-efi │ └── xfs_stage1_5 ├── memtest86plus │ ├── memtest │ └── memtest.netbsd ├── System.map-4.6.7 └── vmlinuz-4.6.7 10 directories, 23 files localhost new_uefi # ############################ Okay, I copy GRUB into BOOT and test it, I unplugged the 'raptor to make it a good test. It got to the point of kernel loading where it stalled presumably because the kernel couldn't find root. But I had TESTED GRUB AND IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 <catches breath> Okay... I then use a parted CD and tried to rsync my data across, got bitten by the goddamned trailing / missfeature, ended up using mv and fixed the directory entries instead of putting another 50gb of wear on my new drive. **** Side note: these boot CDs disable my mouse because it's using a USB port that's mapped to the same IO address space as another USB port and, due to my CPU/MOBO combination, I need about a dozen kernel parameters to unhose using IOMMU. **** So I've tested grub, it got to the kernel, Now I have a root filesystem so the kernel should work. Now to juggle the cables Grub now dies before accomplishing anything whatsoever complaining that it can't find a specific uuid. I have one thing to say about UUID's at this point: BURN -- IN -- HELL. Before I had been indifferent because I could ignore them completely with no ill effects, Now it's failing in a way that I don't even know what's going on. jeez! So what I did was pray to almighty GooG and was provided with a grub boot repair disk.. Which wouldn't work because it refused to touch a UEFI system from a legacy-booted CD... So I reformatted my only CF disk (which was reserved for BIOS images) and got it to do the work. The keyboard input barely worked because there was almost no visible feedback of the cursor position when the gui was operated by keyboard... Anyway, I set the settings the way I wanted and it stopped dead at "plz wait a few minutes while botching up your kernels "... I came back the next morning and it was still frozen so I juggled the cables back and am therefore able to write this e-mail. =\ -- Strange Game. The only winning move is not to play. Powers are not rights.