after using Debian and Ubuntu for some years, I decided to switch over to Manjaro. Today I was fiddling around with a test system (a laptop) before I install it on my main PC.
The laptop boots in Bios (this is also what is shown in the installer on the top) and I wanted to choose GPT as the partioning table. As far as I understood in this combination (=BIOS+GPT) a 8 MB unformatted partition is needed which is marked as bios_grub. This is my first partition. Then I have root (/), home (/home) and a swap partition. I don’t have any boot partition. Manjaro boots fine, but the bios_grub partition is formatted as ext4 after the installation. Does this make sense and how can I make sure that it is even used?
this is what I had before the installation, but after the installation it’s ext4. So, it’s fine as it is?
The 8 mb partition (which is now ext4) is then not used by grub and grub is located on my root partition?
This is the partition I made, because the installer told me that when using a GPT Partition table with BIOS I should make a 8 MB big partition (unformatted) and mark it with bios_grub.
That’s what I did. After the installation it was formatted to ext4.
this is shown in gparted, but it also tells me that the content cannot be read and that the partition is not mounted. I can delete it and see if it still boots.
I would bet your grub’s boot.ing ended up in the MBR and the core.img in sectors #34ff. The BIOS_grub partition won’t be used in that case. It’s a configuration which is not very well known and outworn, but usually it works. I would expect that this also could happen if CSM is not disabled when people try to install in UEFI mode.
Is it better to use MBR as the partition table then to be on the safe side?
I also tried to choose option “erase disk” in the installation manager. There it automatically chooses MBR as the partition table and I see no possibility to choose GPT. I only have root and home, so basically I don’t need nothing more fancy than just MBR.
Is this a bug in the installer then or did I make a mistake?
Sorry to say, but with every new post you show more that an installation in BIOS mode on a gpt parted disk is not a way you should go with your current skill level. You can not hope to always find a helping hand to guide you through all little issues your are going to face.
I would recommend you to decide to do an installation either in
UEFI mode on a gpt parted disk (recommended)
or
BIOS mode on a msdos parted disk with MBR (if you cannot boot in UEFI mode)
Use the time to search the web for grub, BIOS, UEFI, MBR, gpt to understand the basics before a new atempt of installation.