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Thread: resizing GPT on C201PA chromebook makes it unbootable

  1. #1
    Join Date
    2017-Apr
    Posts
    1

    resizing GPT on C201PA chromebook makes it unbootable

    Hi,

    I'm struggling with Kali on Asus C201PA chromebook, when installed and booted from an SD card (128GB). Essentially everything seems to be working fine, including wifi, but once I try to use all space on the SD card (add another partition), it gets unbootable :-(

    Initially, the disk layout (of the SD card) looks like this:

    Code:
    root@kali:~# cgpt show -d /dev/mmcblk1
           start        size    part  contents
               0           1          PMBR
               1           1          Pri GPT header
                                      Sig: [EFI PART]
                                      Rev: 0x00010000
                                      Size: 92
                                      Header CRC: 0x6850405e
                                      My LBA: 1
                                      Alternate LBA: 14335999
                                      First LBA: 34
                                      Last LBA: 14335966
                                      Disk UUID: FDE085FB-90B4-1840-A7EE-5F7190417010
                                      Entries LBA: 2
                                      Number of entries: 128
                                      Size of entry: 128
                                      Entries CRC: 0x90fd8609
               2          32          Pri GPT table
            8192       32768       1  Label: "kernel"
                                      Type: ChromeOS kernel
                                      UUID: 47D2424D-92CD-8E46-906D-E7D1CD097AB2
                                      Attr: priority=10 tries=5 successful=1
           40960    14295007       2  Label: "Root"
                                      Type: Linux data
                                      UUID: 1C0BF3F9-081D-FA46-952B-88FA53349DE4
       243269599          32          Sec GPT table
            8192       32768       1  Label: "kernel"
                                      Type: ChromeOS kernel
                                      UUID: 47D2424D-92CD-8E46-906D-E7D1CD097AB2
                                      Attr: priority=10 tries=5 successful=1
           40960    14295007       2  Label: "Root"
                                      Type: Linux data
                                      UUID: 1C0BF3F9-081D-FA46-952B-88FA53349DE4
       243269631           1          Sec GPT header
                                      Sig: [EFI PART]
                                      Rev: 0x00010000
                                      Size: 92
                                      Header CRC: 0x41551530
                                      My LBA: 243269631
                                      Alternate LBA: 1
                                      First LBA: 34
                                      Last LBA: 14335966
                                      Disk UUID: FDE085FB-90B4-1840-A7EE-5F7190417010
                                      Entries LBA: 243269599
                                      Number of entries: 128
                                      Size of entry: 128
                                      Entries CRC: 0x90fd8609
    I'm not a GPT expert, but following the various tutorials I do this:

    Code:
    root@kali:~# parted /dev/mmcblk1
    GNU Parted 3.2
    Using /dev/mmcblk1
    Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
    (parted) print                                                            
    Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/mmcblk1 appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra
    228933632 blocks) or continue with the current setting?
    Fix/Ignore? Fix                                                          
    Model: SD SD128 (sd/mmc)
    Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 125GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    Disk Flags:
     
    Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name    Flags
     1      4194kB  21.0MB  16.8MB               kernel
     2      21.0MB  7340MB  7319MB  ext4         Root    msftdata
     
    (parted) q
    At this point, the SD card is unbootable, i.e. if I try to reboot the chromebook, it will refuse to boot from it (using the Ctrl-U). The GPT looks like this:

    Code:
    root@kali:~# cgpt show -d /dev/mmcblk1
           start        size    part  contents
               0           1          PMBR
               1           1          Pri GPT header
                                      Sig: [EFI PART]
                                      Rev: 0x00010000
                                      Size: 92
                                      Header CRC: 0xc87dd7d7
                                      My LBA: 1
                                      Alternate LBA: 243269631
                                      First LBA: 34
                                      Last LBA: 243269598
                                      Disk UUID: FDE085FB-90B4-1840-A7EE-5F7190417010
                                      Entries LBA: 2
                                      Number of entries: 128
                                      Size of entry: 128
                                      Entries CRC: 0xab1299a2
               2          32          Pri GPT table
            8192       32768       1  Label: "kernel"
                                      Type: ChromeOS kernel
                                      UUID: 47D2424D-92CD-8E46-906D-E7D1CD097AB2
                                      Attr: priority=0 tries=0 successful=0
           40960    14295007       2  Label: "Root"
                                      Type: Linux data
                                      UUID: 1C0BF3F9-081D-FA46-952B-88FA53349DE4
       243269599          32          Sec GPT table
            8192       32768       1  Label: "kernel"
                                      Type: ChromeOS kernel
                                      UUID: 47D2424D-92CD-8E46-906D-E7D1CD097AB2
                                      Attr: priority=0 tries=0 successful=0
           40960    14295007       2  Label: "Root"
                                      Type: Linux data
                                      UUID: 1C0BF3F9-081D-FA46-952B-88FA53349DE4
       243269631           1          Sec GPT header
                                      Sig: [EFI PART]
                                      Rev: 0x00010000
                                      Size: 92
                                      Header CRC: 0xa6577a55
                                      My LBA: 243269631
                                      Alternate LBA: 1
                                      First LBA: 34
                                      Last LBA: 243269598
                                      Disk UUID: FDE085FB-90B4-1840-A7EE-5F7190417010
                                      Entries LBA: 243269599
                                      Number of entries: 128
                                      Size of entry: 128
                                      Entries CRC: 0xab1299a2
    I've tried to fix this using 'gpt repair' but that does not change a thing :-(

  2. #2
    Join Date
    2017-May
    Location
    Land O'Lakes, Florida
    Posts
    1
    TomasV, have you had any luck solving your problem? I am having the same problem only with a 32GB SD card. I cannot re-size the root partition without screwing up the card so it will not boot. I would appreciate it if you can share any help if you've made progress.

    stevo

  3. #3
    Join Date
    2017-Jun
    Posts
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Stevo898 View Post
    TomasV, have you had any luck solving your problem? I am having the same problem only with a 32GB SD card. I cannot re-size the root partition without screwing up the card so it will not boot. I would appreciate it if you can share any help if you've made progress.
    stevo
    I got the answer! Actually I found the info somewhere in these forums a while back (maybe here). I have repeated this procedure a few times now with variously sized drives, so I pretty much know it off by heart. All you should need to do, after resizing the rootfs, is re-add the kernel's cgpt attributes for the Chromebook's BIOS to pick up, and then you should be good to go.

    For example:

    In the first part of the first post above, TomasV's kernel attributes initially look like this:
    Code:
    Attr: priority=10 tries=5 successful=1
    Whereas, after resizing the disk layout, the attributes have been lost! They now look like this:
    Code:
    Attr: priority=0 tries=0 successful=0
    So, to get the kernel booting again, we need to re-add these attributes.

    We do this in cgpt, either in Chrome OS or in another Linux instance.

    The magic incantation:
    Code:
    cgpt add -i 1 -S 1 -T 5 -P 10 -l kernel /dev/mmcblk1
    That's it! Reboot, and cross your fingers.

    Now Ctrl+U should boot straight into Kali, and the dreaded beep of fail should soon be a long-distant memory.

    Some background info on the above command string:

    'cgpt add' tells cgpt we are about to to modify (or add) a partition.
    '-i 1' tells cgpt we are modifying partition number one.
    '-S 1' tells cgpt to set the "successful" flag - indicating that this kernel has previously booted successfully. This can be either 0 or 1.
    '-T 5' tells cgpt to set the "tries" flag - governing the number of times to try to boot the kernel before giving up. This can be from 0-15.
    '-P 10' tells cgpt to set the kernel's boot priority. If it's set to 0 the kernel will never boot! This can be from 0-15.
    '-l kernel' tells cgpt to set the label of the partition to "kernel". IIRC this isn't actually needed, but YMMV.
    '/dev/mmcblk1' tells cgpt we are working on /dev/mmcblk1. Self explanatory.

    Usually Chrome OS has (at least) two or three kernel/rootfs pairs between which it alternates in order to deliver seamless updates. This is apparently why the extended attributes are required.

    NB: On a system with enough internal capacity, it is possible to keep two (or more) operating systems on the internal memory, and specify which one to reboot into by setting its priority the highest.

    HTH!
    Last edited by ncb; 2017-06-03 at 00:23.

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