How do I stop PC booting the wrong partition ?[SOLVED]

[ron_h]

LMDE 201403 Cinnamon 64bit (but I don't think this question is LMDE realated)

I downloaded Clonezilla Live (*) iso and burnt it to a USB stick. I then used it taking all defaults to clone the local LMDE partition (which is on sda6 **) to another local partition (sda8) which I want to use in future for testing changes before updating the main system. Clonezilla finished OK and I shut it down. I rebooted the netbook and LMDE came up just fine. However, when I checked the partitions using Gparted, sda8 was mounted and sda6 wasn't, not what I expected. I shut down and rebooted. The GRUB menu definitely says the LMDE system I chose to boot is on sda6, not sda8. I guess that it was something Clonezilla did which caused sda8 to become the default boot partition, and ignore the previous default boot partition, but Clonezilla did not update the GRUB menu accordingly.

1. Can I stop this happening on a different PC if I also clone the current LMDE partition ? If so, how ? I've looked at the Clonezilla doc online and I can't see anything there to help.
2. How do I modify the GRUB menu to boot the sda6 partition like it used to, also to boot sda6 in recovery mode if required ?
3. How do I modify the GRUB menu to add additional options to boot the sda8 partition in ordinary or recovery mode ?

Ron

* I decided not to use the Clonezilla package in Synaptic Package Manager as it was the Server Edition. I thought Clonezilla Live was a better fit for me.
** sda1 through sda5 are partitions as Acer supplied with the netbook including Win 7 system, while sda7 is the Linux Swap.

[WharfRat]

Ron,

I suspect that Clonezilla preserved the UUID of the partition so it's the same as sda6. The initrd uses the UUID to to fetch some pre-booting info from the partition and sda6 is most likely found first.

paste back

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sudo blkid

and

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egrep  'vmlinuz|initrd' /boot/grub/grub.cfg

[ron_h]

OK, here goes :

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/dev/sda1: LABEL="PQSERVICE" UUID="16BCF517BCF4F1DB" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="E2F0-474B" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SYSTEM RESERVED" UUID="28BCF745BCF70BD6" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Acer" UUID="B030F98030F94E3A" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="afc6dcda-65ea-446d-9c95-4d355a03debc" TYPE="swap" LABEL="SWAP" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa" TYPE="ext4" LABEL="LMDE" 
/dev/sda8: LABEL="LMDE" UUID="c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa" TYPE="ext4"

I see the UUIDs are indeed identical. Also, the Label I had specified for sda8 has been overridden as well by Clonezilla. sda4 is the whole extended partition.

and

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linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro  quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.11-2-amd64
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro single 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.11-2-amd64

Ron

[Mute Ant]

So it is booting the correct partition and has the paperwork to prove it!

[ron_h]

Hmm. The GRUB menu as displayed to the wetware (not to be confused with what the software sees) says specifically sda6, but what is booted is sda8.

Ron

[wayne128]

Years ago when I learned how to clone partition OS ( except I simply use gparted to copy and paste),
at time I run OS plus its clone in the same hard disk, but different partition, then I experienced what you reported.
In additions, I even dist-upgrade, and eventually found all sort of weird things..

So I learned it is not advisable to run OS with its clone partition also active at the same time!!

Now my practice , if I wish to have another 'same OS' running in the same internal hard disk, or external USB drive, I no longer use clone method, what I have been doing is, use qt4-fsarchiver to backup the OS partition to a 'compressed file', it can be store anywhere, in data partition, in external USB, etc

Then, run qt4-fsarchiver again, restore this to another partition, it will have different UUID and it will become not a clone but another 'same OS'.. this way I stayed away from the problem you reported.

[ron_h]

Many thanks. I thought I'd made things simple by using Clonezilla. Silly me. I'll investigate qt4-fsarchiver now.
UPDATE : I can see fsarchiver in Synaptic Package Manager but no sign of qt4-fsarchiver ...
UPDATE 2 : I have found qt4-fsarchiver on its own site and am downloading the Live-CD image

Would reformatting sda8 after booting with LMDE-Live clear the duplicate UUID ? If not, how do I get rid of the duplicate UUID ?
UPDATE 2 : answered in the post following

Ron

[WharfRat]

Ron,

A few minor adjustments will get both installations running

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sudo -i

Make sure the partition is unmounted

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if mount|grep sda8; then umount -l /dev/sda8;fi

Change the label

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tune2fs /dev/sda8 -L LMDETEST

Install uuid if it's not already installed

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test $(which uuid) || sudo apt-get install uuid

Change the uuid

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tune2fs /dev/sda8 -U $(uuid)

Now mount the partition and chroot to sda8

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mount /dev/sda8 /mnt 

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mount -t proc none /mnt/proc

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mount --rbind /sys /mnt/sys

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mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev

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/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt /bin/bash

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source /etc/profile

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echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf

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export PS1="\[\033[1;33m\]chroot to ->\[\033[1;31m\](system) #\[\e[0m\] "

Copy this new uuid and use it in the sed line below

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blkid|grep sda8|awk '{print $3}'|tr -d 'UUID="'

Replace newuuidhere with the uuid you copied

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sed -i.bak 's/c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa/newuuidhere/1' /etc/fstab

Update the initial ram

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update-initramfs -uv -k $(ls /boot/|grep vmlinuz|cut -c 9-)

Done

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exit

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reboot

After rebooting back to sda6 open the terminal and

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sudo /usr/sbin/update-grub

That should give you the two versions to boot to and that's all there is to it...

Good luck

[ron_h]

Many thanks, I have done all that, and, yes there are 2 extra entries at the bottom of the GRUB menu while Gparted shows the label of the test partition as LMDETEST. The 2 partitions sda6 and sda8 have different UUIDs.

It would be nice if I could change the entries relating to LMDETEST to be a little more distinctive, preferably including LMDETEST. They currently both start

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LMDE Cinnamon 64-bit, 3.11-2-amd64 (/dev/sda6) (on /dev/sda8)

whereas the top 2 entries relating to LMDE are identical for the first 40 or so characters

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LMDE Cinnamon 64-bit, 3.11-2-amd64 (/dev/sda6)

Ron

UPDATE I had marked this thread as SOLVED but that is not the case. The symptom noted above actually tells me (but I didn't realise it) that I now have 4 choices for booting the LMDE partition, sda6, 2 at the top of the GRUB menu, either running system or recovery mode, and 2 at the bottom of the GRUB menu, also running system or recovery mode. I had assumed that the 2 at the bottom of the GRUB menu would boot the LMDETEST partition, sda8, but they don't. Instead they boot the LMDE partition, sda6. I do not have a GRUB menu option which boots the LMDETEST partition.

What do I need to do to get GRUB to contain an option to boot the LMDETEST partition, sda8

[ron_h]

More info

When I had 2 identical partitions, both were shown as having a mount point /

Now I have non-identical partitions, only sda6 is shown as having a mount point /

Ron

[WharfRat]

Start the first listed installation, run and paste back

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mount|grep -w /

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egrep '^UUID|^/dev' /etc/fstab

Then reboot to the second installation and do the same.

[ron_h]

I can only boot one partition, even though there are GRUB menu items for booting two, selecting either just gives me the same partition. So I can't do as you suggest for both partitions. For the partition that does boot I'll run those 2 commands and post the results

Ron

[ron_h]

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ron@baby-2 ~ $ mount |grep -w /
/dev/disk/by-uuid/c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)

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ron@baby-2 ~ $ egrep '^UUID|^dev' /etc/fstab
UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa	/	ext4	rw,errors=remount-ro	0	1
UUID=afc6dcda-65ea-446d-9c95-4d355a03debc	swap	swap	sw	0	0

Ron

[ron_h]

I've just confirmed that whether I select the first GRUB menu item or the fifth, I get the same partition booted, LMDE, not LMDETEST.

The GRUB items are (abbreviated, I don't know how to do a screen capture of the GRUB screen)

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LMDE Cinnamon ... sda6
LMDE Cinnamon ... sda6 recovery
Win 7
Win 7 recovery
LMDE Cinnamon ... sda6 ... on sda8
LMDE Cinnamon ... sda6 ... on sda8 recovery

I'd post a screen capture of what Gparted shows but I don't know how to paste an image into a post

Ron

[WharfRat]

From where you are now, hopefully the same place you were when you posted the above, paste back

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sudo blkid

and

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grep vmlin /boot//grub/grub.cfg

[ron_h]

OK

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ron@baby-2 ~ $ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for ron: 
/dev/sda1: LABEL="PQSERVICE" UUID="16BCF517BCF4F1DB" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="E2F0-474B" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SYSTEM RESERVED" UUID="28BCF745BCF70BD6" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Acer" UUID="B030F98030F94E3A" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="afc6dcda-65ea-446d-9c95-4d355a03debc" TYPE="swap" LABEL="SWAP" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa" TYPE="ext4" LABEL="LMDE" 
/dev/sda8: LABEL="LMDETEST" UUID="015fac40-f127-11e3-ad5a-2b2b889acdff" TYPE="ext4" 

and

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ron@baby-2 ~ $ grep vmlin /boot//grub/grub.cfg
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro  quiet splash
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro single 
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro quiet splash
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro single

[WharfRat]

What about this

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sudo /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig|grep vmlinuz

[Spearmint2]

How I avoid the "clone syndrome" is to make a new partition a little larger using GParted, which gives it unique characteristics, then use the Copy/Paste in GParted to copy the old partition onto the new one. I've never run into that clone problem doing that. I suppose the cloning software expects to find the clone on a different hard drive which also would solve the problem.

[ron_h]

OK

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sudo /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig|grep vmlinuz
[sudo] password for ron: 
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.11-2-amd64
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro  quiet splash
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro single 
  No volume groups found
Found Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda3
Found LMDE Cinnamon Edition (1) on /dev/sda8
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro quiet splash
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa ro single
done

And, it's wrong again, isn't it ? The UUID it's using for sda8 is not the UUID of sda8

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sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="PQSERVICE" UUID="16BCF517BCF4F1DB" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="E2F0-474B" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SYSTEM RESERVED" UUID="28BCF745BCF70BD6" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Acer" UUID="B030F98030F94E3A" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="afc6dcda-65ea-446d-9c95-4d355a03debc" TYPE="swap" LABEL="SWAP" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="c456e7bd-e79e-496c-93a1-5c522359fdaa" TYPE="ext4" LABEL="LMDE" 
/dev/sda8: LABEL="LMDETEST" UUID="015fac40-f127-11e3-ad5a-2b2b889acdff" TYPE="ext4" 

[Spearmint2]

you haven't run update-grub yet.

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sudo update-grub