Ubuntu not booting after cloning (OSX and Kali)

dual-bootgrubunix

the task was too simple – I had a 256gb ssd with OSX (apfs) and Kali (osx booted with Alt pressing and Kali booting on default – I suspect GRUB was operating). I think there was a problem after upgrading to ubuntu 16 so rEFInd menu just disappeared.

I bought a new 512GB ssd and tried to clone OSX partition – it was fine but i had to tackle problem with containers, recovery hd, hidden partition and so on.

Now OSX is booting and I successfully cloned ext4 partition (Kali) with GParted and installed rEFInd via recovery hd. Now rEFInd is working but there's no option for my Kali partition.

I understand there should be a shortcut with bootloader\grub conf without Kali reinstall Kali and cloning partition once again (if ever it boots).

How do I make this ext4 partition boot (supposing cloning was successful)?

Thanks a lot!

Best Answer

OK, after searching for 2 days I finally got the answer.

So I had a bootable apfs OSX partition with rEFInd installed from OSX. rEFIND couldn't find ext4 partition from OSX natively. That was the problem. ext4 partition was cloned from source later on.

Download Kali live-USB, mount it using dd or rufus or any other software.
Reboot, Hold alt to boot from Kali USB, then follow the instructons from here https://medium.freecodecamp.org/kali-installation-on-usb-stick-with-pure-efi-boot-on-a-mac-37585b7698e2 section "Boot from Live GRUB".
After you log in (here's the main trick): download a debian version of rEFInd (.deb) and install it:

sudo dpkg -i DEB_PACKAGE

Reboot. Your Kali partition should appear on rEFInd boot menu together with OSX.

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OS X creates the recovery partition as an alternate boot solution for ease of reinstallation and troubleshooting.

It is not needed for normal operation, and as someone that's familiar with boot technology and options, the simplest option would be to simply delete the partition entirely and patch the partition table if needed.

Here is a stock layout:

Mac:~ me$ diskutil list
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You could merge partitions disk0s3 into the partition that precedes it (in this case) to effectively erase and then delete the Apple_Boot partition listed as Recovery HD. In this case, you would need to be booted to some other drive than disk0 to have both disk0s2 and disk0s3 unmountable (which would make them disk1 or higher in all likelihood).

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Before attempting anything though, remove all traces of your previous failed installation attempts from the Mac.

Best Answer

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