Booting from an external hard drive results in a black screen with GRUB (no prompt)

Question

Regardless of the advisability of doing so, when booting from the external hard drive connected with a SATA to USB adapter cable:

this results in a black screen simply with GRUB in the top left corner. Apparently the system is frozen.

How do I determine that the external drive:

$ 
$ lsblk
NAME                  MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb                     8:16   0 335.4G  0 disk 
├─sdb2                  8:18   0   4.9M  0 part 
├─sdb3                  8:19   0   300K  0 part 
└─sdb1                  8:17   0   2.8G  0 part /media/nicholas/Ubuntu 20.10 amd64
sr0                    11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
sda                     8:0    0   149G  0 disk 
├─sda2                  8:2    0     1K  0 part 
├─sda5                  8:5    0 148.5G  0 part 
│ ├─ubuntu--vg-swap_1 253:1    0     8G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
│ └─ubuntu--vg-root   253:0    0 140.5G  0 lvm  /
└─sda1                  8:1    0   487M  0 part /boot
$ 
$ 
$ ls /media/nicholas/Ubuntu\ 20.10\ amd64/
boot  boot.catalog  casper  dists  EFI  install  md5sum.txt  pics  pool  preseed  README.diskdefines  ubuntu
$ 
$ ls /media/nicholas/Ubuntu\ 20.10\ amd64/README.diskdefines 
/media/nicholas/Ubuntu 20.10 amd64/README.diskdefines
$ 
$ 
$ 
$ nl /media/nicholas/Ubuntu\ 20.10\ amd64/README.diskdefines 
     1  #define DISKNAME  Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Release amd64
     2  #define TYPE  binary
     3  #define TYPEbinary  1
     4  #define ARCH  amd64
     5  #define ARCHamd64  1
     6  #define DISKNUM  1
     7  #define DISKNUM1  1
     8  #define TOTALNUM  0
     9  #define TOTALNUM0  1
$ 
$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 149 GiB, 160000000000 bytes, 312500000 sectors
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: 0x4e19221b
Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048    999423    997376   487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       1001470 312498175 311496706 148.5G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       1001472 312498175 311496704 148.5G 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root: 140.5 GiB, 150894280704 bytes, 294715392 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1: 8 GiB, 8589934592 bytes, 16777216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
GPT PMBR size mismatch (5746099 != 703282605) will be corrected by w(rite).
Disk /dev/sdb: 335.4 GiB, 360080694272 bytes, 703282606 sectors
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: gpt
Disk identifier: 7EE1FFAC-4072-46B8-885E-A7EA3F9C70CF
Device       Start     End Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1       64 5735483 5735420  2.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb2  5735484 5745435    9952  4.9M EFI System
/dev/sdb3  5745436 5746035     600  300K Microsoft basic data
$ 
$ dmidecode -t 2
dmidecode 3.0
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.5 present.
Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 10 bytes
Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: Gateway
    Product Name: G33M05G1
    Version: MP
    Serial Number: ULYM82502591
    Asset Tag:

    Features:
        Board is a hosting board
$

is bootable?

Might this be due to the fact that it's a SATA drive being used for booting, or some other hardware type problem or configuration?

see also:

Boot from an ext4 partition on an external hard drive?

result of sudo parted --list is:

Model: ATA MB2000GCWLT (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB   537MB   primary   fat32        boot
 2      539MB   2000GB  2000GB  extended
 5      539MB   2000GB  2000GB  logical                lvm
Error: The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will
be used.
OK/Cancel? ok
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdb appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra
697536506 blocks) or continue with the current setting? 
Fix/Ignore? i

Model:  Mass Storage Device (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 360GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name       Flags
 1      32.8kB  2937MB  2937MB               ISO9660    hidden, msftdata
 2      2937MB  2942MB  5095kB               Appended2  boot, esp
 3      2942MB  2942MB  307kB                Gap1       hidden, msftdata
Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-swap_1: 1023MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags:
Number  Start  End     Size    File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  1023MB  1023MB  linux-swap(v1)
Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root: 1999GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags:
Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  1999GB  1999GB  ext4

Please try the USB on a second computer, That is the first step in narrowing things down. There are many reasons a Bootable USB may not boot, see: https://askubuntu.com/a/1190765/43926 — C.S.Cameron, Apr 22 '21 at 11:07
What OS do you have on your computer? If you have Linux that boots from GRUB, you can boot an ISO on the External Disk, (or just about anywhere else), using GRUB2. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1269462/bios-uefi-template-image-for-booting-iso-files — C.S.Cameron, Apr 22 '21 at 11:46
I'll look into GRUB usage, thanks for the link. Yes, it worked from another pc -- which just makes me more curious. — Nicholas Saunders, Apr 22 '21 at 19:38

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 22 '21 at 11:45

Use sudo parted --list and look for the boot-flag.

For example:

user@machine:~$ sudo parted --list
Model: SD USD00 (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 15.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  269MB   268MB   primary  fat32        boot, lba
 2      269MB   15.8GB  15.5GB  primary  ext4

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 22 '21 at 19:36

This external SATA hdd, connected with a USB adapter cable, boots fine from another pc.

The OS written with dd was the desktop ISO from Ubuntu downloads.

bit curious about the GPT message, but otherwise seems functional.

Not a complete solution, as this drive cannot seem to boot the other PC for some reason.

When booted from the external hdd:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lsblk
NAME                MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0                 7:0    0     2G  1 loop /rofs
loop1                 7:1    0  55.3M  1 loop /snap/core18/1885
loop2                 7:2    0 217.9M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/60
loop3                 7:3    0  50.7M  1 loop /snap/snap-store/481
loop4                 7:4    0  62.1M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
loop5                 7:5    0  30.9M  1 loop /snap/snapd/9721
sda                   8:0    0   1.8T  0 disk 
├─sda1                8:1    0   512M  0 part 
├─sda2                8:2    0     1K  0 part 
└─sda5                8:5    0   1.8T  0 part 
  ├─vgubuntu-root   253:0    0   1.8T  0 lvm  
  └─vgubuntu-swap_1 253:1    0   976M  0 lvm  
sdb                   8:16   0 335.4G  0 disk 
├─sdb1                8:17   0   2.7G  0 part /cdrom
├─sdb2                8:18   0   4.9M  0 part 
├─sdb3                8:19   0   300K  0 part 
└─sdb4                8:20   0 332.6G  0 part /var/crash
sr0                  11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.98 GiB, 2125537280 bytes, 4151440 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop1: 55.32 MiB, 58007552 bytes, 113296 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop2: 217.89 MiB, 228478976 bytes, 446248 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop3: 50.67 MiB, 53133312 bytes, 103776 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop4: 62.09 MiB, 65105920 bytes, 127160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop5: 30.94 MiB, 32440320 bytes, 63360 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: MB2000GCWLT

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: 0x4312a4c3
Device     Boot   Start        End    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048    1050623    1048576  512M  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2       1052670 3907028991 3905976322  1.8T  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       1052672 3907028991 3905976320  1.8T 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root: 1.82 TiB, 1998833319936 bytes, 3903971328 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-swap_1: 976 MiB, 1023410176 bytes, 1998848 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 335.35 GiB, 360080694272 bytes, 703282606 sectors
Disk model: Storage Device

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: gpt
Disk identifier: 7EE1FFAC-4072-46B8-885E-A7EA3F9C70CF
Device       Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1       64   5735483   5735420   2.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb2  5735484   5745435      9952   4.9M EFI System
/dev/sdb3  5745436   5746035       600   300K Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4  5746688 703282542 697535855 332.6G Linux filesystem
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=8083828k,nr_inodes=2020957,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=1626960k,mode=755)
/dev/sdb1 on /cdrom type iso9660 (ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048)
/dev/loop0 on /rofs type squashfs (ro,noatime)
/cow on / type overlay (rw,relatime,lowerdir=/filesystem.squashfs,upperdir=/cow/upper,workdir=/cow/work)
/dev/sdb4 on /var/log type ext4 (rw,relatime)
/dev/sdb4 on /var/crash type ext4 (rw,relatime)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,size=4096k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=755)
cgroup2 on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
none on /sys/fs/bpf type bpf (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mode=700)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=28,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=18984)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/tracing type tracefs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core18_1885.snap on /snap/core18/1885 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-34-1804_60.snap on /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/60 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/snap-store_481.snap on /snap/snap-store/481 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/snapd_9721.snap on /snap/snapd/9721 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_1506.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/user/999 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1626956k,nr_inodes=406739,mode=700,uid=999,gid=999)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/999/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=999,group_id=999)
portal on /run/user/999/doc type fuse.portal (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=999,group_id=999)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Thank you for keeping us up to date. +1 – C.S.Cameron Apr 23 '21 at 09:48 — C.S.Cameron, Apr 23 '21 at 09:48

Booting from an external hard drive results in a black screen with GRUB (no prompt)

dmidecode 3.0

2 Answers2