Hello again,

On Thu, 8 Jun 2017, Haines Brown wrote:

> The problem was more worked around than resolved.
>
> After having no grub modules with an installation on a new disk, whether
> DVD or netinst ISO, I knew the problem wasn't with the disk. I installed
> Devuan Jessie more or less successfully on a new disk without the old
> disk being connected. Then I reconnected the old disk and now can boot
> either operating system successfully.

Sounds a lot like what I recommended on 4th June. :)

> If anyone has an idea of what might be the problem, I'd appreciate
> knowing.

I don't know for sure what the problem is, but I am fairly sure that if
you read up about GRUB2 you'll get nearer to knowing. The GRUB install
will look at all the discs and do what I guess somebody thought at one
time were intelligent things depending on what it finds. My experience
of the process has been patchy at best, especially with encrypted discs.
That's why I suggested a clean install on a single newly formatted disc.

> Perhaps with both disks attached, the presence of one preoccupies
> the SATA port needed by the other.

Something like that seems to me to be most unlikely. Unlike the old
IDE ports, SATA ports are of course electrically completely separate.
However BIOS bugs are not unknown.

> Incidentally, the key on which the ISO is installed names itself UEFI. I
> have both UEFI and legacy selected in BIOS. If I have just legacy,
> nothing boots.

I'd have expected that you could select just legacy and then do a
clean install, although I don't think I've never cared which it uses.

--

73,
Ged.