MacOS – Linux Mint partition suddenly no longer recogized after having been with same settings

disk-utilityhard drivemacospartition

I have this Sata drive that I partitioned into Data, System1 and System2 at one point. I did this on my still current MBP early 2011 when it was running El Capitan and still is.

The System2 partition I partitioned as MS DOS from what I think take from the results of the diskutil list command

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac SSD                 249.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Data                    840.2 GB   disk1s2
   3:          Apple_CoreStorage System1                 79.5 GB    disk1s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data                         79.4 GB    disk1s5
/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS System1                +79.1 GB    disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s3
                                 1536AE43-EB8C-4380-96E7-82E92495D765
                                 Unlocked Encrypted

So I'm thinking that the thing that comes after dev/disk1/ 5: Microsoft Basic Datashould be the name I gave to the partition (being system2).

For the record I'll add that the partition doesn't show up in the finder or the Disk Utility app for that matter.

EDIT: This partition worked fine before. And with working I mean it showed up as System2 in the finder, and also if I rebooted holding down alt key, the partition showed up as bootable in the list. When I installed the partition and it worked, I was running El Capitan (still OSX and not macOS) just like I am now. So this problem sort of occurred 'out of the blue'.

This is what sudo fdisk /dev/disk1 outputs

 Disk: /dev/disk1   

geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   1 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
*2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1641025168] HFS+        
 3: DA 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1641696952 -  155242608] <Unknown ID>
 4: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1796939560 -    1269536] HFS+

UPDATE:
I've managed to reformat the partition doing the FAT32 filesystem, this time naming the partiion only in CAPS as per @David Anderson's suggestion. Succesfully booted into linux (Bodhi this time) and now almost two weeks later, the partition doesn't mount in OSX nor is it in my list as an EFI bootable drive anymore.

Here is what diskutil list outputs this time:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac SSD                 249.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Data                    840.2 GB   disk1s2
   3:          Apple_CoreStorage System1                 79.5 GB    disk1s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s4
   5:                 Linux Swap                         9.0 GB     disk1s5
   6:           Linux Filesystem                         70.5 GB    disk1s6
/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS System1                +79.1 GB    disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s3
                                 1536AE43-EB8C-4380-96E7-82E92495D765
                                 Unlocked Encrypted

And fdisk /dev/disk1:

Disk: /dev/disk1    geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   1 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
*2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1641025168] HFS+        
 3: DA 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1641696952 -  155242608] <Unknown ID>
 4: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1796939560 -    1269536] HFS+

Looking very very similar to what there was before.. not that I know how to intepret this though….

Thanks!

Best Answer

I was somewhat successful recreating your situation. There were some noticeable differences from what you posted in your question and comments.

You can not name a MS-DOS (FAT) partition System2. You must use capital letters. You can name an ExFat partition System2.
There is no indication you created a Swap partition when installing Mint. The Mint installer will allow this omission. Unfortunately, when I tried this, the installer crashed before finishing. The result drive configuration was exactly what you have posted in your question.

It is possible you succeeded in installing Mint, even though I failed. This could be due to differences in hardware. Or, I might have chosen a different Mint installation ISO file.

I believe your Mint installation should have included a swap file. Therefore, I recommend you should reinstall Mint. You can use the instructions given below as a guide.

Determine the amount of Memory installed in your Mac. From the menu bar, select ->About this Mac. The pop up will display the amount of Memory. The image shown below is a example of this pop up.

Note: For a better view of an image, either click on the image or open the image in a new window.
Install Mint. In the images shown with this step, the sizes will differ from what you will see. Also, you will probably need to substitute /dev/sdb for /dev/sda.

When the image below appears, select "Something else", then select "Continue".

Next, select partition /dev/sta5, the select "-" to delete the partition.

Select the free space created by the previous step, then select "+".

In the "Create partition" popup window, select the options as shown below. Substitute a "Size" value equal to or sightly larger than the memory installed. In step 1, I determined a memory size of 16 GB, therefore I entered a value of 17 GB. Finally, select "OK".

Select the remaining free space after partition /dev/sda5, then select "+".

In the "Create partition" popup window, select the options as shown below, except do not change the "Size" value. The default value is the maximum available space, which is what you want. Finally, select "OK".

Select partition /dev/sda1 for the "Device for boot loader installation:", then select "Install Now".

Select "Continue".

Continue with the installation.
When the installation has finished, you will see the image shown below. Select "Continue Testing".

When the image below appears, hit the keyboard shortcut control+option+T to open a Terminal window.

The result should appear as shown below.
Next, you will need to enter some commands. These commands will make Mint appear in the Startup Manager as "EFI Boot". In the Terminal window, enter the commands given below.
```
mkdir  efi
sudo  bash
mount  /dev/sda1  efi
cd  efi/EFI
rm  -rf  boot
mkdir  boot
cp  ubuntu/grubx64.efi  boot/bootx64.efi
ch  ~
umount  efi
exit
rmdir  efi
```
An example is shown below.

Next, enter the command exit to close the window. At this point, you can shutdown the computer.

Note: To switch between OS X and Mint, you will need to hold down the option key at startup and restart. Holding down the control key before selecting the arrow below an icon, will make the associated operating system the default.

Best Answer

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