Grub2 information & Links.

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
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timber

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by timber »

I found the following link to be most helpful.
Didn't see it in your list, it may have been added since your posts.

http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Grub_2

Thank You for all the helpful links, Fred (et al) they're appreciated!

djb
breaker

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by breaker »

WOW, I am so surprised this one hasn't been listed yet, I use it all the time! https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
Edit by Husse
For some reason two posts disappeared when I merged two topics here
The real info value was this link about grub2 and chainloading Windows
lanternflower

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by lanternflower »

Thanks for this! Without this help I would have never worked out how to sort out putting XP onto the menus.

It's funny because I was only just thinking how this whole menu.lst thing was just too easy and that we really need to make things much more complicated so that people can feel that sense of achievement when they finally get the thing working or that it will be an opportunity for people to contact fellow penguin people and discuss the problem and thus increase their social interaction. Sometimes people have not got so much to talk about and while quizzes such as "what celebrity do you look like" provide a point of conversation, I think many people feel that they are maybe not discussing anything "REAL" and that such conversations, while amusing, are not in the realm of discussing anything of substance. Discussions about boot loaders on the other hand could be as simple or as complicated as you are prepared to make them.

Having said all that I was quite dissapointed to see that the developers didn't take the opportunity of grub 2 to convert the files over to XML which would not only provide greater obfusication (and we all know boot loaders are a favourite target of virus writers) but might provide for greater inoperability with soap or web browsers etc. It could be a first step towards allowing us to serve our boot settings up as web pages. However I'm hoping that this whole UUID thing is just a step on the path to coverting all the files completely over to hexadecimal, now that would be a radical move forward.

In any case thanks so much for the link Breaker! Not only do I feel that sense of achievement but I also feel a warm and fuuzy glow towards you all for your assistance!
Husse

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by Husse »

I sense some irony in the post above :)
I simply say grub2 is not ready and I have an unsolvable problem with my grub (well I can do a workaround but not solve the problem :()
Odin Overland

Re: Grub2 Mac OS X

Post by Odin Overland »

Has anyone successfully booted Mac OS X from GRUB2 on either a GPT or MBR? If so - how? I have been racking my brains here :http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=189079 but to no avail. I am trying to boot Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Mint/Ubuntu (Mint on GPT iMac, Ubuntu on MBR iMac).
Leppie

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by Leppie »

Husse wrote:I simply say grub2 is not ready and I have an unsolvable problem with my grub (well I can do a workaround but not solve the problem :()
do you still have this issue?
Leppie

Re: Grub2 Mac OS X

Post by Leppie »

Odin Overland wrote:Has anyone successfully booted Mac OS X from GRUB2 on either a GPT or MBR? If so - how? I have been racking my brains here :http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=189079 but to no avail. I am trying to boot Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Mint/Ubuntu (Mint on GPT iMac, Ubuntu on MBR iMac).
if you could download and run the boot info script and post the generated RESULTS.txt in a new thread, we can have a look at your issue.
Husse

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by Husse »

Nope - thanks for the offer for assistance
I have mentioned what it was and I think you wrote something that got me thinking and led me to the solution
Leppie

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by Leppie »

Husse wrote:Nope - thanks for the offer for assistance
I have mentioned what it was and I think you wrote something that got me thinking and led me to the solution
well, glad to have been of assistance then :)
Odin Overland

Re: Grub2 Mac OS X

Post by Odin Overland »

Leppie wrote:
Odin Overland wrote:Has anyone successfully booted Mac OS X from GRUB2 on either a GPT or MBR? If so - how? I have been racking my brains here :http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=189079 but to no avail. I am trying to boot Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Mint/Ubuntu (Mint on GPT iMac, Ubuntu on MBR iMac).
if you could download and run the boot info script and post the generated RESULTS.txt in a new thread, we can have a look at your issue.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=42350
aandreae

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by aandreae »

I had the same problem and it was simple : my windows partition was unsafe.
I do an ntfsfix on my windows partition (A chkdsk c: /f as the same result).
I rebooted and miracle ! Grub2 saw my windows loader.

If it can help...
housefull

Re: good info installing grub2 and recognizing windows partition

Post by housefull »

Thanks for that awesome description! Have fun at Houston!



Glad to hear you're using this: I plan to keep it much more aggressively up-to-date than has been the case in the past, but don't hesitate to let me know if you find errors or need clarifications.
ddalley
Level 4
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Posts: 303
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:25 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by ddalley »

Fred: here is a new GRUB2 migration article from IBM that you may want to add to your list of resources.
distro hopper

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by distro hopper »

Another one for the list: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 (very intuitive, all-in-one page)
gamiwv

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by gamiwv »

hi all people. real confused about grub to grub2 upgrade. I'm using mint 8 _64
4 days ago I have manually upgrade the kernel to 2.6.34 and everything looking to me fine. After a reboot I have upgrade Firefox to 3.6.3. Reboot again and all where as have to be. After some time I decided to upgrade (through the terminal
# sudo upgrade-from-grub-legacy ) grub to grub2. After reboot I have no grub at all. I'm using for the moment a live CD distro to post this.
my system:
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Host Bridge (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 LPC Bridge (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SMBus (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Co-processor (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP79 High Definition Audio (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Bridge (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)
00:0b.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SATA Controller (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation ION VGA (rev b1)

my usb:
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c521 Logitech, Inc. MX620 Laser Cordless Mouse
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0a81:0101 Chesen Electronics Corp. Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0b05:1736 ASUSTek Computer, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:0990 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 9000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

any help? I can see my home file as a folder but I don't know where exactly to look to reverse -if there is a way- my selection to grub2 and get back to grub
habfan29
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Posts: 20
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 2:41 pm
Location: Dartmouth NS Canada

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by habfan29 »

Hi all,

I just installed Linux Mint 9 today (first time Mint user, I had been using Ubuntu but the ham-fisted UI changes in 10.04 disgust me) and ran into a serious problem with the Grub installation.

Namely: it didn't. It just plain didn't install. I told it to install to /dev/sda7 (my / partition) but after rebooting I discovered the partition wasn't bootable. Went back into the live CD, reinstalled Mint, same problem. I finally had to run grub-install manually with the --force option; otherwise it whined about "embedding not possible" and "blocklists are a BAD IDEA" and some other useless chunk of technobabble. I take it the Mint installer either does not detect or does not care about grub failing to install in this manner.

This needs to be fixed in the live CD. I'm fairly tech savvy (and have a laptop so I could still get online!) so I could find the problem and fix it myself; but the installer should never just silently fail like that without informing the user. I'm going to go file a bug report if one doesn't already exist.
angle333

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by angle333 »

I don't know why grub2 isn't picking it up. I have had a few instances of grub2 not picking up all the kernels scattered over my drives but I don't remember grub2 actually ignoring ones that it located.

Here are a couple of things I do when troubleshooting:

a. Change one of the titles so I know the grub.cfg I see when it boots is the one I am looking at in the editor (i.e. if there are multiple grub.cfg files on your system). You will have to chmod +w to actually edit grub.cfg

b. Search your system for multiple instances of the file.

c. Place the kernel you want to show up in /etc/grub.d/40_custom so at least it shows up when you update grub. At best you will have two instances - the detected and the custom entries; at worst you will have at least the one from the 40_custom file. Don't forget to make the file executable.

d. Reinstall grub2 with grub-install
rijnsma

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by rijnsma »

Grub2 is a disaster for me and maybe (probably) ext4 belongs to it too. I'm doing all with Linux. No Windows yet again after I used it formerly until Windows ME.

I'm happy to say that I managed to keep my Linux multiboot-system okay in spite of my (intens) testing ext4 and Grub2. I did it on another HD with dummy OS's. Else I would have had a completely broken system. But I knew before that things could become tricky. So I kept the safe side.

Now I stick to a good multiboot system with for example PCLinuxOS, XKUbuntu, still with Mint 6 (+bootloader) and Mint 8 Helena as latest Mint and some more partition to move, and the whole thing on ext3. Not on ext4.
And what for ext4? I don't see the benefits. It is even not much faster.
But this 'sticking' of me can't go on for always, I know Ubuntu and Mint. :? Before one knows one is working with a tool from the 'stone-age'. Very, very short release-cycle.

I have problems for instance:
when I use some distro's without a bootloader and one with a bootloader where in former days a
Mint- of Ubuntu-distro made a fine list in Grub's menu.lst of entrees, when the bootloader was 'on'.
You could repeat that chainloading principle over and over again. Very nice. I don't see the fun of /etc/Grub.d.
And so you can experiment and test as much as you like with distro's along each other on several partitions.
But with ext4 and Grub2 I even can't do a 'redo-MBR' to get Grub-things right.

Then:
I use remastersys to keep things safe enough. Supertool. But not anymore it looks like.
Remastersys too has suddenly problems because of Grub2 or ext4 when I'm installing an OS to another
disc for example, where things formerly went always smooth.

I hope this is temporalily. I also hope, this is not a bug or something like that, so I'm worrying for nothing.
The possibillity to play around with OS's and also doing my work with them was a very important reason for me to do things Linux. Very comfortable it was..

I hope the Grub2-ext4 story is not a risk for Linux as a whole?! :(
ur_sunny

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by ur_sunny »

rijnsma

Re: Grub2 information & Links.

Post by rijnsma »

Thank you very much for the reply. :)

I have in this case some 5 partitions (but this can vary of course), wich I use for doing things with one linux distro
from day to day (for instance Mint8) and for experimenting, searching and learning with other partitions.

In this case I used Mint 6 with the bootloader to switch between all partitions (ext3 Grub1) and to have redundancy.
It has helped me a lot in the past.. It is comfortable to be able to mount other partitions with whatever OS you like.

Then there is an old PCLOS 2007 Minime, which I build some years back to a full PCLOS (ext3 Grub1).
Now this is for administrative things.

There was an Ubuntu-version on a partition (ext3 Grub1) and Mint 8 which I made ext3 (not ext4) with Grub1.
No problem at all.
Mint 9 also is able to do it on ext3, so this would not be a problem. But about Grub I'm not sure; I suspect
sometimes in the future this will be default Grub2 in Mint and Ubuntu. I don't know about Debian.

Ext4 is not compatible with ext3 and Grub2 not with Grub1. And the advantage is not enormous.
The menu-list of Grub1 was by the programmers in Grub2 transformed in grub-conf and /etc/grub.d and I don't
know anything about it. I've seen what is in it, but it is not a rather simple, clear case like menu.lst.

When I search on the web and see what problems people have and what manuals there are to be able to
work with Grub2, I'm off.

With Grub1 it is simple to make a multiboot system.
Make only a bootloader on your system for instance for the central 'day to day distro' (or an old one for the
menu-switch on boot) and in menu.lst there will be the menu you see at bootime. Ubuntu and Mint did this
very well and I loved this feature always. I mean Grub updating what is on the HD.
Are things wrong do a new install with a remaster livecd or do a (great) 'redo MBR' like there is in PCLOS.
Then one can addept menu.lst and on we go with more than two OS's.

With Grub2 and/or ext4 this is impossible as far as I know and as far as I have seen.

It is also not quite clear, how the new Grub-situation works with livecd remasters. I have seen here, that a Mint-remaster
which has been made on ext3 can not be installed on ext4. When Grub is handled by install at the end, the install
halts with an error. This is not right and not nice..

So what is my solution for this moment? For the time being I use PCLOS 2010 (Gnome fine OS as far as I can see
for this moment after 5 days) as my new central distro which is simply ext3 and Grub1 and has the switch-menu at boot
for itself and the other OS's, and I have on my other partitions Mint and whatever I like.

It's alright and works fine. But I don't quite understand this move of KXUbuntu (and Mint), which gives people a lot of
trouble. Why this incompatibillity forcing in? It is so unfriendly. :(
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