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From: Klistvud on 3 Dec 2009 08:00
Howdie, fellow Debianites!

I've just tried to install Grub2 to my spare Lenny installation. I am
baffled (not to say disappointed) by the results:

1. -- kernel automagic configuration hasn't been copied over from the
legacy menu.lst to the new grub.cfg
2. -- chainloader stanzas from the old menu.lst are likewise lost
3. -- the command upgrade-from-grub-legacy installs the new boot loader
into the MBR, not letting you select a partition instead of the MBR
(overwriting any custom MBR you may have). Admittedly, this is only a
minor nuisance, but a nuisance still.
4. -- it didn't pick up the right partitions of my installed systems,
so I had to manually edit grub.cfg, changing various "set root=(hd0,1)"
into "set root=(hd0,2)" and the like. And this was on a pretty simple
setup: only a single hard drive, with just four primary partitions
(Swap, Lenny, LennySpare, and Home).

Luckily, I did this on my "LennySpare" installation, which I use for
testing stuff and such ...

My question is: will Lenny still be able to update its list of kernels
automagically with all its "automagic" gone?

Less importantly: couldn't the Grub installer be made to at least copy
your existing chainloading stanzas over to grub.cfg? Isn't that a
totally trivial thing to do, even for such a "work in progress" as the
Grub2 project currently is?

--
Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com


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From: Klistvud on 3 Dec 2009 13:10
Dne, 03. 12. 2009 18:26:09 je Chris Jones napisal(a):
>
> Is the os-prober package installed?
>

Nope...

>
> The documentation tells you not to do that, but rather edit the
> 'source'
> files in /etc/grub.d and run update-grub.
>

Right. But to get to the 'source' files, you have to have a bootable
system ... which I didn't, and had to edit the Grub2 stanzas at boot,
on-the-fly, specifying the correct partition(s)...

>
> I don't like the idea of grub building its .cfg file from bits and
> pieces of grub-legacy, or lilo stuff that may live on other
> partitions.
>
> So, I let it happen once to build grub.cfg and copied all the stanzas
> from other systems to /etc/grub.d/40_custom, modified them to my
> liking,
> deactivated os-prober by making the script in /etc/grub.d/ '-x', and
> ran update-grub.

Good point. In my case, the missing os-prober may have been the cause
of additional messiness in the final result. Must dig down into /etc/
grub.d and study its bits and pieces. Grub2 is a promising piece of
software, and seems more powerful and manageable than Grub legacy.

--
Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com


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From: Klistvud on 3 Dec 2009 16:50
Dne, 03. 12. 2009 20:15:40 je Chris Jones napisal(a):

> OK, so apt-get install os-prober + update-grub to rebuild grub.cfg.

Right. Did that, and things seem better now: the other Lenny system on
the other partition was detected. Must dig into the scripts in /etc/
grub.d now. I was used to editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and now must
learn to lose that bad habit ...

>
> Update-grub should issue an informational message such as 'os-prober
> not
> installed, other systems will not be detected'

Exactly. Or it should just bail out gracefully, prompting the user to
install os-prober before proceeding.

> most folks feel tense when messing with their boot loader and
> that's a good time to stop thinking rationally.

Yep. The brain switches into panic mode.

--
Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com


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From: Klistvud on 3 Dec 2009 17:10
Dne, 03. 12. 2009 23:52:28 je Klistvud napisal(a):

What I still don't get, though, is where to put kernel parameters
in these grub scripts? If I put them in grub.cfg, they'll just get
overwritten the next time update-grub is run ...

--
Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com


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From: Klistvud on 3 Dec 2009 17:50
Dne, 03. 12. 2009 23:13:24 je Gilles Mocellin napisal(a):
>
> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="video=radeonfb:mode_option=1024x768 splash"
>

Thanx.

--
Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com


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