GRUB2 changes, introducing EFI

[Jacek Konieczny]

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 09:27:29PM +0100, Grzesiek wrote:
> > I guess you mean one of the options often used with legacy grub:
> > 1. the space between MBR and the first partition
> > 2. the unused space at the beginning of a ext[234] file system
> >
> > Which one? And how much space do you have there?
> The first one, first partition starts on 32256B
> 
> I'm using ext4 partition on lvm on one disk.

So you cannot write grub into ext4 partition and you 
need the LVM module in the base grub image, right?
This may be tricky, indeed.

> Numer Początek Koniec Rozmiar Typ System plików Flaga
> 1 32256B 30005821439B 30005789184B primary ntfs ładowalna
> 2 30005821440B 999782783999B 969776962560B primary
> 3 999782784000B 1000202273279B 419489280B primary linux-swap(v1)
> 
> I'm trying to install grub by "grub-install /dev/sda" and it fails 
> because core.img is to big, is there any other way to install grub in 
> this configuration?

You could try to create a dedicated /boot partition – putting it at the
end of the disk should be doable, provided you still have some space in
your LVM PV. In such case the lvm grub module would not be needed and
the image would be smaller. But it is probably not a solution you are
looking for.

I am looking for a ways to make the modules smaller too…

Hmm…

$ file /lib/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod
/lib/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, Intel 80386,
version 1 (SYSV), not stripped

So there are some debug symbols there… I wonder if grub needs them… Can
you try stripping all those modules (backup, 'strip /lib/grub/*/*.mod'),
re-install grub (make sure the copies in /boot are also updated) and see
if it helps?

I don't feel like testing this at my machine at this moment.

Greets,
        Jacek