If one must install grub to a partition (e.g. on a first-generation Mac Pro), one is advised on the ArchLinux Wiki to use chattr: Warning: GRUB strongly discou

If one must install grub to a partition (e.g. on a first-generation Mac Pro), one is advised on the ArchLinux Wiki to use chattr: Warning: GRUB strongly discourages installation to a partition boot sector or a partitionless disk as GRUB Legacy or Syslinux does. This setup is prone to breakage, especially during updates, and is not supported by the Arch developers. # chattr -i /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img # grub-install --target=i386-pc --debug --force /dev/sdaX # chattr +i /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img in case of partition or a partitionless disk is that GRUB relies on embedded blocklists in the partition bootsector to locate the /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img file and the prefix directory /boot/grub. The sector locations of core.img may change whenever the file system in the partition is being altered (files copied, deleted etc.). The workaround for this is to set the immutable flag on /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img (using chattr command as mentioned above) so that the sector locations of the core.img file in the disk is not altered. The immutable flag on /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img needs to be set only if GRUB is installed to a partition boot sector or a partitionless disk, not in case of installation to MBR or simple generation of core.img without embedding any bootsector (mentioned above). https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB/Tips_and_tricks https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB/Tips_and_tricks