Void Linux, MBR boot using ZFSBootMenu
Motivation: Familiarize using syslinux with ZFSBootMenu (ZBM)on a host that uses legacy (MBR) boot. Eventually syslinux/ZBM will be used to boot Debian Bookworm with ZFS on root.
- https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org/en/v2.3.x/guides/void-linux/syslinux-mbr.html#
- https://github.com/leahneukirchen/hrmpf/releases
2024-03-09 Download and install to Ventoy
From https://github.com/leahneukirchen/hrmpf/releases download hrmpf-x86_64-6.5.12_1-20231124.iso (No peers for the torrent.) Confirm sha256sum. Copy to Ventoy USB drive.
2024-03-09 boot hrmpf
Boot hrmpf and select first option to run. Comes up to console with SSH server available. Login with anon/voidlinux and passwordless sudo.
2024-03-09 Configure Live Environment
Source /etc/os-release
source /etc/os-release
export ID
echo $ID
bash-5.2# source /etc/os-release
bash-5.2# export ID
bash-5.2# echo $ID
void
bash-5.2#
Generate /etc/hostid
zgenhostid -f 0x00bab10c
Define disk variables
Confirm (Kingston) SSD device node. /dev/sda it is!
bash-5.2# sgdisk /dev/sda -p
Disk /dev/sda: 234441648 sectors, 111.8 GiB
Model: KINGSTON SA400S3
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 7B794CDC-A742-48C3-BDC2-3825E3E776DD
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 234441614
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 22494 sectors (11.0 MiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 1050623 512.0 MiB EF00
2 1050624 234421134 111.3 GiB BF00
bash-5.2#
export BOOT_DISK="/dev/sda"
export BOOT_PART="1"
export BOOT_DEVICE="${BOOT_DISK}${BOOT_PART}"
export POOL_DISK="/dev/sda"
export POOL_PART="2"
export POOL_DEVICE="${POOL_DISK}${POOL_PART}"
Disk preparation
blkdiscard -f $BOOT_DISK
cat <<EOF | sfdisk "${POOL_DISK}"
label: dos
start=1MiB, size=512MiB, type=83, bootable
start=513MiB, size=+, type=83
EOF
bash-5.2# blkdiscard -f $BOOT_DISK
blkdiscard: Operation forced, data will be lost!
bash-5.2#
bash-5.2# cat <<EOF | sfdisk "${POOL_DISK}"
label: dos
start=1MiB, size=512MiB, type=83, bootable
start=513MiB, size=+, type=83
EOF
Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... OK
Disk /dev/sda: 111.79 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Disk model: KINGSTON SA400S3
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>>> Script header accepted.
>>> Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x14b74275.
/dev/sda1: Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 512 MiB.
/dev/sda2: Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux' and of size 111.3 GiB.
/dev/sda3: Done.
New situation:
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x14b74275
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1050623 1048576 512M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1050624 234441647 233391024 111.3G 83 Linux
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
bash-5.2#
NB blkdiscard either doesn't work or is s-l-o-w on this device. and running sfdisk too soon results in warnings.
2024-03-09 ZFS pool creation
Create the zpool
zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
-O compression=lz4 \
-O acltype=posixacl \
-O xattr=sa \
-O relatime=on \
-o autotrim=on \
-o compatibility=openzfs-2.1-linux \
-m none zroot "$POOL_DEVICE"
zpool list
```
```text
bash-5.2# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
-O compression=lz4 \
-O acltype=posixacl \
-O xattr=sa \
-O relatime=on \
-o autotrim=on \
-o compatibility=openzfs-2.1-linux \
-m none zroot "$POOL_DEVICE"
bash-5.2# zpool list
NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
zroot 111G 588K 111G - - 0% 0% 1.00x ONLINE -
bash-5.2#
Create initial file systems
zfs create -o mountpoint=none zroot/ROOT
zfs create -o mountpoint=/ -o canmount=noauto zroot/ROOT/${ID}
zfs create -o mountpoint=/home zroot/home
zpool set bootfs=zroot/ROOT/${ID} zroot
bash-5.2# zfs create -o mountpoint=none zroot/ROOT
bash-5.2# zfs create -o mountpoint=/ -o canmount=noauto zroot/ROOT/${ID}
bash-5.2# zfs create -o mountpoint=/home zroot/home
bash-5.2# zpool set bootfs=zroot/ROOT/${ID} zroot
bash-5.2# zfs list -r
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
zroot 972K 108G 96K none
zroot/ROOT 192K 108G 96K none
zroot/ROOT/void 96K 108G 96K /
zroot/home 96K 108G 96K /home
bash-5.2#
Export, then re-import with a temporary mountpoint of /mnt
zpool export zroot
zpool import -N -R /mnt zroot
zfs mount zroot/ROOT/${ID}
zfs mount zroot/home
bash-5.2# zpool export zroot
bash-5.2# zpool import -N -R /mnt zroot
bash-5.2# zfs mount zroot/ROOT/${ID}
bash-5.2# zfs mount zroot/home
bash-5.2# zfs list -r
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
zroot 996K 108G 96K none
zroot/ROOT 192K 108G 96K none
zroot/ROOT/void 96K 108G 96K /mnt
zroot/home 96K 108G 96K /mnt/home
bash-5.2#
Verify that everything is mounted correctly
bash-5.2# mount | grep mnt
zroot/ROOT/void on /mnt type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl,casesensitive)
zroot/home on /mnt/home type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl,casesensitive)
bash-5.2#
Update device symlinks
udevadm trigger
Install Void
XBPS_ARCH=x86_64 xbps-install \
-S -R https://mirrors.servercentral.com/voidlinux/current \
-r /mnt base-system
...
base-system-0.114_1: configuring ...
base-system-0.114_1: installed successfully.
130 downloaded, 130 installed, 0 updated, 130 configured, 0 removed.
bash-5.2#
Copy our files into the new install
cp /etc/hostid /mnt/etc
2024-03-09 Basic Void configuration
Set the keymap, timezone and hardware clock
cat << EOF >> /etc/rc.conf
KEYMAP="us"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
EOF
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
[xchroot /mnt] # cat << EOF >> /etc/rc.conf
KEYMAP="us"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
EOF
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<timezone> /etc/localtime
bash: timezone: No such file or directory
[xchroot /mnt] # ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago
/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago
[xchroot /mnt] # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
[xchroot /mnt] #
Configure your glibc locale
cat << EOF >> /etc/default/libc-locales
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1
EOF
xbps-reconfigure -f glibc-locales
[xchroot /mnt] # cat << EOF >> /etc/default/libc-locales
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1
EOF
xbps-reconfigure -f glibc-locales
glibc-locales: configuring ...
Generating GNU libc locales...
en_US.UTF-8... done.
en_US.ISO-8859-1... done.
glibc-locales: configured successfully.
[xchroot /mnt] #
Set a root password
passwd
2024-03-09 ZFS Configuration
Configure Dracut to load ZFS support
cat << EOF > /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf
nofsck="yes"
add_dracutmodules+=" zfs "
omit_dracutmodules+=" btrfs "
EOF
Install ZFS
xbps-install -S zfs
[xchroot /mnt] # xbps-install -S zfs
[*] Updating repository `https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/current/x86_64-repodata' ...
Name Action Version New version Download size
bc install - 1.07.1_5 80KB
binutils-doc install - 2.41_2 750KB
binutils-libs install - 2.41_2 2188KB
libunistring install - 1.0_1 583KB
libidn2 install - 2.3.4_1 168KB
public-suffix install - 2024.03.01_1 128KB
libpsl install - 0.21.5_1 72KB
libssh2 install - 1.11.0_2 121KB
c-ares install - 1.27.0_1 79KB
jansson install - 2.14_1 29KB
libev install - 4.33_1 31KB
nghttp2 install - 1.59.0_1 711KB
libcurl install - 8.6.0_1 340KB
libdebuginfod install - 0.190_1 15KB
binutils install - 2.41_2 4120KB
kernel-libc-headers install - 6.1_1 1328KB
glibc-devel install - 2.38_5 3233KB
libatomic install - 13.2.0_2 11KB
libatomic-devel install - 13.2.0_2 11KB
libgcc-devel install - 13.2.0_2 1404KB
libstdc++-devel install - 13.2.0_2 2829KB
gcc install - 13.2.0_2 71MB
linux6.6-headers install - 6.6.21_1 12MB
linux-headers install - 6.6_1 542B
make install - 4.4.1_1 535KB
dkms install - 3.0.12_1 36KB
libtirpc install - 1.3.4_1 89KB
libzfs install - 2.2.3_1 1746KB
gdbm install - 1.23_1 167KB
libxcrypt-devel install - 4.4.36_3 110KB
perl install - 5.38.2_3 14MB
expat install - 2.6.1_1 68KB
libffi install - 3.3_2 19KB
sqlite install - 3.44.2_2 1245KB
python3 install - 3.12.2_2 7785KB
zfs install - 2.2.3_1 32MB
Size to download: 159MB
Size required on disk: 515MB
Space available on disk: 106GB
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
...
### Install the ZFSBootMenu package
```text
xbps-install -S zfsbootmenu
2024-03-09 Install and configure syslinux
Create a ext4 boot filesystem
mkfs.ext4 -O '^64bit' "$BOOT_DEVICE"
[xchroot /mnt] # echo "$BOOT_DEVICE"
/dev/sda1
[xchroot /mnt] # mkfs.ext4 -O '^64bit' "$BOOT_DEVICE"
mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
64-bit filesystem support is not enabled. The larger fields afforded by this feature enable full-strength checksumming. Pass -O 64bit to rectify.
Discarding device blocks: done
Creating filesystem with 131072 4k blocks and 32768 inodes
Filesystem UUID: dc13df92-52bb-4da2-a57f-4ee69bf4e090
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304
Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (4096 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
[xchroot /mnt] #
Create an fstab entry and mount
cat << EOF >> /etc/fstab
$( blkid | grep "$BOOT_DEVICE" | cut -d ' ' -f 2 ) /boot/syslinux ext4 defaults 0 0
EOF
mkdir /boot/syslinux
mount /boot/syslinux
[xchroot /mnt] # cat << EOF >> /etc/fstab
$( blkid | grep "$BOOT_DEVICE" | cut -d ' ' -f 2 ) /boot/syslinux ext4 defaults 0 0
EOF
mkdir /boot/syslinux
mount /boot/syslinux
[xchroot /mnt] # df /boot/syslinux
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 499284 152 462436 1% /boot/syslinux
[xchroot /mnt] #
Install the syslinux package, copy modules
xbps-install -S syslinux
cp /usr/lib/syslinux/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
[xchroot /mnt] # xbps-install -S syslinux
cp /usr/lib/syslinux/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
[*] Updating repository `https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/current/x86_64-repodata' ...
Name Action Version New version Download size
syslinux install - 6.03_8 1322KB
Size to download: 1323KB
Size required on disk: 3400KB
Space available on disk: 106GB
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
[*] Downloading packages
syslinux-6.03_8.x86_64.xbps.sig2: 512B [avg rate: 19MB/s]
syslinux-6.03_8.x86_64.xbps: 1322KB [avg rate: 2064KB/s]
syslinux-6.03_8: verifying RSA signature...
[*] Collecting package files
syslinux-6.03_8: collecting files...
[*] Unpacking packages
syslinux-6.03_8: unpacking ...
[*] Configuring unpacked packages
syslinux-6.03_8: configuring ...
syslinux-6.03_8: post-install message:
========================================================================
Some optional packages must be installed for additional functionality:
- mtools: mkdiskimage and syslinux support
- gptfdisk: GPT support
- efibootmgr: EFI support
- dosfstools: EFI support
========================================================================
syslinux-6.03_8: installed successfully.
1 downloaded, 1 installed, 0 updated, 1 configured, 0 removed.
[xchroot /mnt] #
[xchroot /mnt] # ls -l /boot/syslinux/*c32|wc -l
59
[xchroot /mnt] # ls -l /boot/syslinux/|wc -l
61
[xchroot /mnt] #
Install extlinux
extlinux --install /boot/syslinux
[xchroot /mnt] # extlinux --install /boot/syslinux
/boot/syslinux is device /dev/sda1
[xchroot /mnt] #
Install the syslinux MBR data
dd bs=440 count=1 conv=notrunc if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of="$BOOT_DISK"
[xchroot /mnt] # dd bs=440 count=1 conv=notrunc if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of="$BOOT_DISK"
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
440 bytes copied, 8.3113e-05 s, 5.3 MB/s
[xchroot /mnt] #
2024-03-09 Install and configure ZFSBootMenu
Set ZFSBootMenu properties on datasets
zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:commandline="quiet" zroot/ROOT
[xchroot /mnt] # zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:commandline="quiet" zroot/ROOT
[xchroot /mnt] # zfs get org.zfsbootmenu:commandline zroot/ROOT
NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE
zroot/ROOT org.zfsbootmenu:commandline quiet local
[xchroot /mnt] #
Enable zfsbootmenu image creation
mkdir -p /etc/zfsbootmenu/
cat <<EOF >/etc/zfsbootmenu/config.yaml
Global:
ManageImages: true
BootMountPoint: /boot/syslinux
Components:
Enabled: true
Versions: false
ImageDir: /boot/syslinux/zfsbootmenu
EOF
[xchroot /mnt] # cat <<EOF >/etc/zfsbootmenu/config.yaml
Global:
ManageImages: true
BootMountPoint: /boot/syslinux
Components:
Enabled: true
Versions: false
ImageDir: /boot/syslinux/zfsbootmenu
EOF
[xchroot /mnt] # cat /etc/zfsbootmenu/config.yaml
Global:
ManageImages: true
BootMountPoint: /boot/syslinux
Components:
Enabled: true
Versions: false
ImageDir: /boot/syslinux/zfsbootmenu
[xchroot /mnt] #
Configure syslinux
mkdir -p /boot/syslinux/
cat > /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg <<EOF
UI menu.c32
PROMPT 0
MENU TITLE ZFSBootMenu
TIMEOUT 50
DEFAULT zfsbootmenu
LABEL zfsbootmenu
MENU LABEL ZFSBootMenu
KERNEL /zfsbootmenu/vmlinuz-bootmenu
INITRD /zfsbootmenu/initramfs-bootmenu.img
APPEND zfsbootmenu quiet
LABEL zfsbootmenu-backup
MENU LABEL ZFSBootMenu (Backup)
KERNEL /zfsbootmenu/vmlinuz-bootmenu-backup
INITRD /zfsbootmenu/initramfs-bootmenu-backup.img
APPEND zfsbootmenu quiet
EOF
Generate the initial ZFSBootMenu initramfs
mkdir -p /zfsbootmenu
xbps-reconfigure -f zfsbootmenu
[xchroot /mnt] # xbps-reconfigure -f zfsbootmenu
zfsbootmenu: configuring ...
No initramfs generator specified; using dracut
Mounting /boot/syslinux
mount: /boot/syslinux: can't find in /etc/fstab.
Unable to mount /boot/syslinux
zfsbootmenu: configured successfully.
[xchroot /mnt] #
2024-03-09 Prepare for first boot
Exit the chroot, unmount everything
exit
umount -n -R /mnt
Export the zpool and reboot
zpool export zroot
reboot
No joy. Flashing underline cursor upper left, blank screen. Repeating the procedure.
When verifying the device (still /dev/sda) `sgdisk is not happy but sfdisk is, probably because it is using MBR partition table.
bash-5.2# sgdisk -p /dev/sda
Caution: invalid main GPT header, but valid backup; regenerating main header
from backup!
Warning: Invalid CRC on main header data; loaded backup partition table.
Warning! Main and backup partition tables differ! Use the 'c' and 'e' options
on the recovery & transformation menu to examine the two tables.
Warning! Main partition table CRC mismatch! Loaded backup partition table
instead of main partition table!
Warning! One or more CRCs don't match. You should repair the disk!
Main header: ERROR
Backup header: OK
Main partition table: ERROR
Backup partition table: OK
Invalid partition data!
bash-5.2# sfdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 111.79 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Disk model: KINGSTON SA400S3
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x14b74275
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1050623 1048576 512M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1050624 234441647 233391024 111.3G 83 Linux
bash-5.2#
2024-03-09 Great Success!
After running through the procedure for a third time I got a system that boots. Following along with my notes the second time it seems like there were big sections mssing. Overlooked? I suspect I got tangled up trying to keep notes and execute the commands at the same time and skipped some crucial step. (They're probably all crucial.) The third time I kept no notes and just followed the procedure.