Grub install tools?
in [Slackware]
|
Prev: Unsupported kdelibs
Next: lost icons in xfce
From: Mike Jones on 17 Feb 2010 15:51 Responding to Bit Twister: > On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:42:06 GMT, Mike Jones wrote: > >> OFCOL! Whats going on lately? Everything seems to be becoming insanely >> (more) complex for no good reason! Is M$ planting spooks in Linux >> development teams? %| > > I think so. Mandriva even added a Guest account not requiring a > password. Small sample of grief it caused > https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=54710 > > Read these problem reports in Mandriva Linux > > https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=57651 > https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=56389 > > Latest change in KDE 4.4 now forces me to click the text in the desktop > shortcut icon to get a reliable launch. :( Is this the beginning of another "divergence" in the Linux multiverse? "I can't believe its not Windows!" versus "Let them eat *NIX!" Ubuntu have a lot to answer for IMO. ;) -- *=( http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/ *=( For all your UK news needs.
From: Jerry Peters on 17 Feb 2010 16:35 Mike Jones <Not(a)arizona.bay> wrote: > Responding to Bit Twister: > >> On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:41:08 +0000 (UTC), Douglas Mayne wrote: >> >>> The first thing to remember about grub is that device >>> numbering/nomenclature begins with "0". C-style, I guess. >> >> Gotta love progress. >> >> GRUB is Legacy software. >> >> All Hail GRUB2. >> >> You will just love grub2. ;-/ >> >> The good news: >> http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6981/1/ The bad news: >> http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6981/2/ >> >> More information found at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.en.html > > > OFCOL! Whats going on lately? Everything seems to be becoming insanely > (more) complex for no good reason! Is M$ planting spooks in Linux > development teams? %| > I agree, is it really *that* hard to edit menu.lst? The last thing I want is for some crazy scripts to update my boot configuration; if anything goes wrong I'll have to boot from USB (or CD on some older laptops that don't boot from USB) to fix it. And I guess the new "improved" grub probably makes that difficult too. Jerry
From: Grant on 17 Feb 2010 16:45 On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:42:06 GMT, Mike Jones <Not(a)Arizona.Bay> wrote: >Responding to Bit Twister: > >> On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:41:08 +0000 (UTC), Douglas Mayne wrote: >> >>> The first thing to remember about grub is that device >>> numbering/nomenclature begins with "0". C-style, I guess. >> >> Gotta love progress. >> >> GRUB is Legacy software. >> >> All Hail GRUB2. >> >> You will just love grub2. ;-/ Not if it still insists on using undefined disk space like first cylinder, sectors 2..63. This single stupid notion stops me considering grub. Besides, lilo works fine for me. Lilo is fine until one has >2TB drives to boot. But in my mind, I'd rather the OS stay on a smaller disk, away from such large, possibly RAID, data drives. >> >> The good news: >> http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6981/1/ The bad news: >> http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6981/2/ >> >> More information found at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.en.html > > >OFCOL! Whats going on lately? Everything seems to be becoming insanely >(more) complex for no good reason! Is M$ planting spooks in Linux >development teams? %| It's the nature of the beast -- developers seem rarely to stay back with a 'finished' project to iron out all the bugs. Grant. -- http://bugs.id.au/
From: Tuxedo on 17 Feb 2010 17:28 GangGreene wrote: [...] > /boot/grub/menu.lst Thanks for the hint! it is where my current grub menu gets its options but the file resides in the partition of my other ubuntu-like distro. Trying to edit it from there is a bit hard, because the ubuntu installer didn't give me a possibility to define a root password as far as I know and the file is owned by root. Not a problem to edit it from within Slackware, and at least I have a working bootloader now, wherever it is :-) Tuxedo
From: Tuxedo on 17 Feb 2010 17:47
Douglas Mayne wrote: [...] > Caveat: I don't know of any gui tools for grub. IMO, none are required. > > FWIW: I find grub to be a much more flexible bootloader than lilo. YMMV. > Its install method, using the "grub shell" provides a suitable and > sensible working environment when modifying these critical disk > structures. "gui-ifying" is not necessary. > > A primary requirement is knowing a little bit about what you're doing when > "twiddling critical bits." IMO, time spent learning about the bootloader > will pay dividends later on. It looks like grub would be able to satisfy > your needs on your other thread: "usb boot media." That is, if you were > willing to invest a bit of time in "knowing what you're doing." > > The first thing to remember about grub is that device > numbering/nomenclature begins with "0". C-style, I guess. > > Installing the grub bootloader /* can be */ as simple as is shown below. > In my example below, I am using a combined boot/root partition, /dev/sda1. > I will inform grub to use files on /dev/sda1 to setup the bootloader on > the MBR. Also, be aware that grub's keyword, "root" is used to inform grub > where it will find /*its*/ own files; it is not necessarily the same as > Slackware's root partition. For example, the grub's root is different than > Slackware's root when using a separate boot partition. In the case below, > they are the same. > > Here is my example. Proceed at your own risk! > > 0. Begin working as the root user and install the grub package. Look in > the "extra" package group. > > 1. In the directory /boot, create a subdirectory ./grub. > > # mkdir /boot/grub > > 2. Copy the necessary files from installed location. For whatever reason, > this is not done automatically. > > # cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/* /boot/grub > > 3. Begin using grub shell in interactive mode. In the output below, I use > the "geometry" directive to make sure I am installing grub on the proper > target. Also, note that in the i/o below the shell prompt is shown as: > grub> > > Here we go.. > > root(a)sl13:~# grub --no-floppy > > Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. > > <begin grub shell i/o> > GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory) > > [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB > lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible > completions of a device/filename. ] > > grub> geometry (hd0) > drive 0x80: C/H/S = 38913/255/63, The number of sectors = 625140335, > /dev/sda > Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is xfs, partition type 0x83 > Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82 > Partition num: 2, Filesystem type is xfs, partition type 0x83 > > grub> root (hd0,0) > Filesystem type is xfs, partition type 0x83 > > grub> setup (hd0) > > Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes > Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes > Checking if "/boot/grub/xfs_stage1_5" exists... yes > Running "embed /boot/grub/xfs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 21 sectors are > embedded. > succeeded > Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+21 p > (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst" > ... succeeded > Done. > > grub> quit > <end grub shell i/o> > > root(a)sl13:~# > > 4. Create a boot menu, menu.lst. Use your favorite editor. Be aware that > the syntax is unforgiving. spaces between keywords are required! > > # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst > > <begin menu.lst content> > default=0 > title Slackware 12.2 (+k2.6.30.10-smp) > root (hd0,0) > kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-smp-dm1 vga=ask max_loop=24 > resume=/dev/sda2 initrd /boot/i-30.10.gz > <end menu.lst content> > > End of my example. > > IMO, here are the grub's main set of features which give it an > "edge" over lilo, and make it a very flexible bootloader: > > 1. It can be installed on any bootable media (cd-r, usb, floppy, > hard disk, etc.) > 2. If there are problems booting due to the kernel not being found, etc. > then a working environment, the "grub shell" is presented. Commands > may be entered interactively from this enviroment. Useful commands > include configfile, root, kernel, initrd. These commands follow the > syntax required by menu.lst. When the same type of errors occur with > the lilo bootloader, then the recourse is to look for a rescue CD, as > you have already discovered. > > Oh yeah, here is one more, YMMV. > Thanks for the step-by-step guide. You are right that in spending enough time learning it the right way would pay off. After all, simply booting an operating system shouldn't be a complicated affair. This isn't an issue in a single distro disk set up or in a typical Linux plus one Windows partition install scenario, but appears that most installation routines of popular distros are simply not geared up for the idea of more than one Linux and Windows by any automated install procedures. I will give your ideas a try as soon as I have time to dive into it! Tuxedo |