Score:0

Thank you re: Boot partition /dev/sda confusion

us flag

Can someone please explain which partition is used by the machine bios to boot up a Lubuntu HDD ? I prepared a HDD in a working machine in FAT32 format via RUFUS before installing it back into my older laptop. Now as Lubuntu shows /dev/sda to be the boot partition in (ext4 format), I would like to know what happens to the original FAT32 boot system/settings. My knowledge is really limited in this scenario, please help.

David avatar
cn flag
Is this a dual boot machine?
guiverc avatar
cn flag
The machine BIOS config has a disk marked as *first* (0); that disk has it's first sector (0) or MBR read (this is `grub` stage 0 with Lubuntu) which provides a pointer to the disk/partition where the rest of `grub` can be found which then provides a boot menu, along with Lubuntu background etc... (for a BIOS/legacy box & not uEFI). You've not said which release; but this is what you're asking for (*how the installer sets this up can vary by release, but this is the minimum of what's required; some releases also install uEFI/ESP but it's not used with BIOS box; impish doesn't though*)
Nmath avatar
ng flag
Your description is confusing. It's not clear what you did or what problem you are encountering. It's also not clear what is the original problem you were trying to solve or why you chose this path. Please edit your question and make sure your description is unambiguous and reproducible so we can understand the scenario.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
You mention `sda` which refers to a disk. Partitions are `sda1`, `sda2` etc where the `sda` refers to the disk itself. The MBR is the first sector of the disk - which is outside of the partition table (not inside a partition; if it's written to a partition it's not bootable/used by BIOS machines)
sudodus avatar
jp flag
I suggest that you [download the system-info script](https://github.com/Mafoelffen1/system-info/), click the green 'Code' button, extract the zip file and run `system-info` in your installed system (or if that does not work, run download and run it in the live system, 'Try Lubuntu', when booted from the USB boot drive). Let 'system-info` upload the result to a pastebin and post the link to it in a comment here. - Then we can describe and discuss details about the drives, partitions and file systems and know that we talk about the same things.
us flag
Thank you all for your time and effort, I can assure you that each reply has contributed to my better understanding.
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