I went ahead and copied the Mint system partition too.
I have got to the stage now where I have to change the UUIDs in the fstab file. The way you showed them in the instructions is not quite the way they are in myUUIDs.txt - see attachment.

Can you show the exact parts of each line in that file I have to copy. In other words, re-attach a new .txt file to you reply, so I can open it and copy/paste the contents to the fstab file?

My hope for a solution is reviving, I'm getting more optimistic.

Attached Files

myUUIDs.txt (431 Bytes, 6 views)

Hi,

Please see the two attachments:
These are just the plain text versions of the fstab and grub.cfg shown below.

Replace or edit your fstab with this one. It's a plain text file.
One other thing.. I don't use Grub in quite the same way as Mint does. To keep everything "Mint Standard" edit EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg
This is the amended file for the Lenovo. You'll see that the UUID is that of the eMMC system partition. Again, this is a plain text file.
Note: This is not the same grub.cfg as the "main one" in /boot/grub/grub.cfg .

Basically, on powerup, the firmware runs (on the EFI partition) /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI (full system path is /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI ).

This then runs /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi (full system path is /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi ). This starts Grub which uses /EFI/grub.cfg (full system path is /boot/efi/EFI/grub.cfg ) for initial configuration.
Essentially, it tells Grub the location of the system drive and the main grub.cfg.

Grub then displays the boot selection(s) contained here. You then choose your boot option and the relevant initrd and kernel are loaded. The system then starts normally..

I'm of the opinion that this particular implementation is rather "long winded". The same job can be done with one .efi file and one grub.cfg .

Note: If you ever reformat or delete, create & format any partition(s) be aware that the UUID(s) will change.

Bodge99.

Attached Files

	fstab.txt (455 Bytes, 6 views)
	grub.cfg.txt (126 Bytes, 8 views)

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

I've had a quick look at the AntiX automount functionality in Virtualbox, both with the installed version and the live one, just in case there is any difference in the way it's handled.

I can confirm that the automount function is "very well behaved" and automounts a flashdrive to /media/USB STICK (for my Toshiba flashdrive) in both the live and installed versions.

There is also no restriction caused by AntiX that stops an automounted flashdrive partition from being manually remounted to a different location.
As expected, the flashdrive partition contents were now visible in two locations.

It would appear that Klass either accidentally deleted the contents of the flashdrive EFI partition (been there, done that!) or the relevant EFI files were written to the host machine that was used to create the flashdrive installation and not to the flashdrive.
I'll look into this..

Please Note: I'm not saying that Klass didn't have a problem accessing the eMMC or flashdrive that I'm not seeing here.. I'm not totally convinced that the kernel version in AntiX is giving 100% hardware support for his Leonovo.

Bodge99

Many thanks for that.

Did that, no problems encountered. Yay!

I have a couple of questions about this:
* what exactly do you mean by "Change it to suit your system as shown below."? The only thing that is different between the code above and what there is at the moment is the uuid. Which uuid should I replace your version with?
* this is significantly shorter than the process for amending the Grub you described in comment #135 on page 9. Is this shorter process sufficient or do I need to still do the Grub steps from comment #135? If I should still use comment #135 too, please indicate how #135 and #167 need to be combined.

Hi,
I've amended the post to clarify that both of these files are for your computer.. I'm also trying to make the process clear for anyone else who wants to perform a similar process as you.

On re-reading my post I see that I've created a little confusion... Sorry..

I couldn't sleep last night so I had a closer look at creating a Mint flashdrive installation again.. I did find something surprising.
I normally use a specific laptop to create bootable flashdrives or flashdrive/external drive installations.. This time I couldn't as this laptop was busy compiling a bespoke kernel for something.

I ended up using my Wife's laptop as it was the nearest to hand. The end result of the installation was slightly different with this laptop.

What I found was that the Grub installation that was performed by the installer had ignored the configuration that I had selected and written the Grub files to the laptop. I had told the installer not to use the laptop's EFI partition and swap partition.

The laptop swap partition was not modified but nothing was written to the flashdrive's EFI partition. I can only assume that this happened to you.

I think that I'll write a new guide to installing Mint to a flashdrive or external drive that manually backs up the existing EFI partition, copies the correct EFI files to the flashdrive and then restores the original laptop EFI partition.

Bodge99

Hi,

Re: Posts #135 and #167. Yes, you need to do both of these.

Post #135 refers to the main grub.cfg that resides in /boot/grub/grub.cfg . This config file handles OS selection and kernel loading etc.

Post #167 refers to an initial grub.cfg that tells Grub where to find the system drive and the specific location of the main grub.cfg file.
This file is located in EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg (this path is wrt the EFI partition.). The full system path (i.e. when the system has started) is /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg)

When the system is first started (i.e. not yet running), the firmware can only access files on the EFI partition. The firmware can only read a FAT partition. This is by design..

The boot process continues as indicated in the last part of post #167.

Bodge99

Thanks a lot. I have now copied the text to the grub.cfg file in EFI/ubuntu/ - no problems encountered.

A good idea, as your instructions here are brilliant. In fact, LinuxQuestions should do something with - central posting, or something similar.

No worries :-)

When I tried to access /boot/grub/grub.cfg there was no /boot folder.

I now have my knickers in a complete twist. Looking at your comment #135 I noticed that there is no instruction to remove everything from the eMMC system drive before copying from the Mint flashdrive. That was an obvious step to make for you, not for me at the time, now it is. I did the copying at the time, thought it went well, but now it appears it did not.

So, after failing to access/boot/grub/grub.cfg I used the file manager to check it out, and indeed there was nothing. Now, apart from me getting confused between the eMMC drives (mmcblk) it seems to me the computer is too. Because I tried to correct by going back, remounting the Mint system drive to /mnt1 and /dev/mmcblkp02 to /mnt2.
Then, removing everything, 1 folder, usr, remained. Tried again with "rm -r *", and suddely another group of folders showed up in there. So I thought maybe /dev/mmcblk0p2 was not mounted, I tried to mount it again, and this is what the terminal told me:
There are 2 versions of /dev/mmcblk0p2 mounted.
So, it seems to me that, like me, the computer is getting confused too, and after cleaning up mmcblk0p2 related to eMMC, the terminal sort of reverts to the one related to the Live AntiX flashdrive.

Thus I am now totally confused, don't know anymore what there is and is not, what still needs to be done.
Perhaps you can give me a few individual lines of code that I can to extract to show you what needs to be done to correct.

you only have one /dev/mmcblk0p2 that is mounted in 3 different places, and is already mounted at /mnt2.
what is in /mnt2/boot? dev/mmcblk0p2 is the mint system parition and dev/mmcblk0p1 is your efi parition which is usaully mounted at /boot.

Hi,

"Files" in /dev are device files/special files that act as an interface to a device driver. Essentially they are a link to the physical hardware devices.
You do not normally access these directly.

/dev/mmcblk0p2 is the device file that refers to and interacts with the hardware that is the second eMMC partition.

To actually access files on this partition, you must first mount (i.e. "connect") this device file to an accessible location within the file system.

The first line here is you trying to connect the second eMMC partition to the location /mnt2 i.e. you are asking the system to do something for you.

The second line is a warning/reminder that the second eMMC partition is already mounted **somewhere** **OR** there is one or more open files in /mnt2 e.g. a text editor has a file open.

The third line is just the system telling you that the second eMMC partition is already connected to /media/rootantiX17.4.1 (automounted).

The fourth line is telling you that the second eMMC partition is already connected to /mnt2 . i.e. the request made originally in line one has already been done.

To summarise: The system is telling you that your request has already been performed and that the **contents** of mmcblk0p2 are accessible in two locations within the file system. Specifically at /media/rootantiX **and** at /mnt2 .

Bodge99

This is turning into a nightmare. How can something be mounted in 2 different places, or even 3, as Colorpurple says? I did it? OK, but if that is the case I did not do it on purpose but because the procedure is confusing.

And what are the partitions on the live AntiX USB stick called - also mmcblk? You experienced some funny results with the swap file on your wife's computer, which may not be relevant here, but for a newbie this way to get Mint installed is not doable. It's a cinch for an old Linux hand like you.

Hi,

From post #135
Reformatting the eMMC system partition would have cleared it. Creating a GPT drive from scratch would have automatically erased everything anyway. I don't think that's involved with what is going on here..

Now have a look at your installed Mint flashdrive..

If you have your Mint system flashdrive mounted to /mnt1 can you do the following (in a terminal as Root) and post it here.
Bodge99

doesn't the op already have linux mint system on the internal drive and now just trying to make it bootable? If so why not chroot into the mint system and run grub-install and grub-mkconfig?

Hi,
Slow down.. take a breath.. You **ARE** covering quite a few concepts and I **DO** appreciate that it can appear somewhat daunting.
You are **NEARLY THERE**. Don't worry, we've all been confused by this stuff at times. That's why I try and simplify things where possible.

There is no problem whatsoever having a partition mounted in more than one place. One of the reasons that I use mount points such as /mnt1 and /mnt2 etc. is because one distro's automount of a flashdrive may be different to a another distro's. Each distro will have their own conventions which are historical and may be different.

An example: AntiX automounts a flashdrive to /media/{flashdrive designation} whereas Mint automounts the same flashdrive to /media/{username}/{flashdrive designation} (My Toshiba flashdrive automounts in Mint to /media/bodge99/fb32f374-8cc4-47ce-bdf5-0c396c1ae160 . This is actually the Mint system partition (Ext4), that's why the UUID is shown.).

If I use /mnt1 and /mnt2 in written guides etc. then anyone can duplicate what I've done exactly.

You manually mounted a partition to a location within the filesystem that I suggested.
The **SAME** partition was also automounted to the systems default automount location. I'm not particularly interested where or even if the system has automounted anything... I want to use my chosen locations. I personally find it easier to work this way for this sort of job.

Once the concepts here have "clicked" with you.. and they will eventually, you'll wonder what the problem was.. You have done very well getting this far.
It's a steep learning curve for you at this stage.

Just take things slowly, one step at a time. We'll sort out any problems as they arise..
I'll state the following again.. You have been **VERY** unlucky so far with the initial problems which led you onto this path. The experience that you have gained here really will pay dividends for you in the future, believe me. Any similar future problems you may have on other kit will at least spark some recognition on how to proceed or how to ask for help in a more efficient way.

Re: mmcblk devices. Multiple eMMC devices will be detected **one by one**. The first detected device will be designated mmcblk0 , the second device as mmcblk1 and so on.

If these devices have partitions on them then the first partition on the first detected device will be designated mmcblk0p1 .
The third partition on the second detected device will be designated mmcblk1p3 and so on..
Therefore you can specifically identify a particular partition on a particular device.

If you have three hard drives in your desktop then the first drive will be sda, the second sdb, the third sdc .

The first partition on the first detected drive would be sda1. The third partition on the second detected drive would be sdb3 and so on. You need to understand the general designation mechanism.. You **will** when this project is finished!

Bodge99.

Hi,

Colorpurple21859: It might be an idea to check exactly what has been copied across from the flashdrives system partition to the eMMC.

Bodge99