Grub2 information & Links.

[DeanoBravo2zero]

A little How to restore Grub2, which worked for a fool like me
http://martinwebster.eu/2011/04/28/how-to-restore-grub-bootloader-on-linux-mint-10/

[sunewbie]

may I add a community tutorial #245 Reinstall grub2 from LiveCD

[hal8000]

This maybe of interest to anyone who has more than one linux distro installed.

I normally choose Grub legacy to control the boot as it is far easier to control with a single
configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst (IMHO)

Whenever I switch to Grub2, the os-proper always makes a mess and I end up with some bootable
systems that use grub2 e.g. Ubuntu, but a total mess is made of any system using grub legacy
e.g. PCLinux , Arch etc.

After using grub_customiser in Ubuntu and changing various settings in grub2, the automatic probing was still
failing to properly load systems using grub legacy.

Any menu entry in Grub2 that tried to load a distro (that would normally use grub legacy) would
crash.
Examing the entries in Grub2 I found the problem ... and its the counting problem.

Grub leagcy starts counting at 0 for both drives and partitions.
Grub 2 starts counting at 0 for drives and 1 for partitions.

In the case of a probed grub2 entry that fails, press c for the console and you will probably find
that the script has identified the drive but NOT the partition. In my case for PClinux it tried
to load the initrd from an invalid partition. Entry looked like

menuentry "PCLinux" {
linux (hd1,1)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 quiet splash
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img
}

Partition 0 cannot exist in Grub2 as it counts starting at 1, changing (hd1,0) to (hd1,1) and
for the first time, I had a grub2 os_probed distribution that works.


My alternative solution was to disable probing in /etc/default/grub and add all custom entries.

The prober script is too much for me to fix, anyway and my choice is grub legacy.
I have custom menu fonts, colours, a large 1024x768 splash in grub legacy anyway, so dont miss
anything from grub2.

[banjoman]

I have just installed Mint12 on my Acer TravelMate. It came with Windows 7so I want to create a dual boot machine. I installed Mint from live DVD, however the installation menu did not give me an option to install alongside Windows (as is my usual experience when installing a Ubuntu Linux distro).

I therefore deleted a ntfs partition and created a linux partition and installed to that.

One problem is apparent on reboot, the computer goes straight to Windows, so presumably I have not installed a grub menu. How can I boot up Linux? Does the link in previous post apply to my situation?

Secondly I was warned that I had not created a swap area, but I went ahead with the installation anyway! Do I need to create a swap area and if so, how?

Thanks for help and advice...

[sunewbie]

:?:
I have just installed Mint12 on my Acer TravelMate. It came with Windows 7so I want to create a dual boot machine. I installed Mint from live DVD, however the installation menu did not give me an option to install alongside Windows (as is my usual experience when installing a Ubuntu Linux distro).

I therefore deleted a ntfs partition and created a linux partition and installed to that.

One problem is apparent on reboot, the computer goes straight to Windows, so presumably I have not installed a grub menu. How can I boot up Linux? Does the link in previous post apply to my situation?

Secondly I was warned that I had not created a swap area, but I went ahead with the installation anyway! Do I need to create a swap area and if so, how?

Thanks for help and advice...

Linux needs SWAP partition to function properly. But I have read some posts where people have not used SWAP and things are working fine. If you have RAM more than 8 GB, then it might work.

Links provided at the end of this thread are new ones and are useful, like I have posted and the one posted earlier than me on same page.

In case of Windows 7, if you want to play safe, you can install EasyBCD in windows 7. it's a boot loader, which identifies Linux. So even if you remove Linux, you can boot into windows. Alternatively, GRUB should identify Linux. You can make use of LIVE CD and try for links provided by my in earlier post to recover GRUB. Else Ubuntu GRUB 2 help page has given tutorial on how to reinstall GRUB using chroot / chmod method. It worked for me.

If you are planning to use easyBCD, please refer this link:

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/06/11/du ... windows-7/

since I have never tried it (I have XP) so I wont be able to help. Maybe someone else can help you.

In case you install GRUB in MBR and want to remove Linux Mint, you can repair bootloader, by using the repair option of windows 7 recovery DVD

[banjoman]

thank you so much for your helpful advice, the article you linked to is excellent, very informative, it explains the technical aspects in a straightforward and helpful way, at the same time detailing the steps along the way - and illustrating them

this was just what I needed, I found it easy to set up my laptop to dual boot by following this tutorial - now to install my favourite software and I am perfectly set up...

[sunewbie]

Nice to know things are working for you

Enjoy Linux Mint

[breaker]

A bit of good info here; http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGRUB2Disk
Mainly the part about loopback.cfg; http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Loopback.cfg

The main one I like has been split, now we have some basics still here; https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
but all about installing/reinstalling here; https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing

Also be sure to check the "related links" at the bottom of the above mentioned link;

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Submenus
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Upgrading

[breaker]

Don't forget the good version 1.99 manual from the terminal -

Code: Select all

info grub

[javamaan]

FYI to people with grub2 problems.

I have 2 linux flavors installed. Fedora and Linuxmint. Whenever I install/upgrade Linuxmint, grub2 creator has parsing issues.
I think the parser looks for the latest version of vmlinuz and uses that image. So everytime i install/upgrade, it would use the Fedora vmlinuz and try to boot. As fedora tends to have latest kernels.

Can somebody change the parser to look for fedora vmlinuz? it usually ends as *.fxx.i686.img ("*.f17.i686.img or *.f16.i686.img)

You have to manually change the entry in grub.cfg in /boot/grub directory.

Hope this helps someone.