MBR and new kernels for other distros

[Aleph]

Hi longtom,

thanks for your advice  , I read time ago the O-P post but I thought the problem now was different.

Effectively, I did

From a root terminal on any live CD from any distribution that uses grub; not grub2.

[root@localhost ~]# grub                                   <Enter>

grub> find /boot/grub/stage2                           <Enter>
 (hd0,0)                                   <-- Yours will vary depending on where Linux is installed. Use your results for next command.

grub> root (hd0,0)                             <Enter>
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)                         <Enter>
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  15 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+15 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit                                      < Enter>

[root@localhost ~]#

But nothing happened, the grub entries where the same after to do it.

[Just17]

Where is that post from O-P where he explains very nicely, in some detail and colourful how to get grub into the MBR forever and how to use it without having all this trouble ....

That would be an interesting find ........  I have never read anything on this forum about automatically picking up changes in other distros which use Grub2, except by the use of the chainloader boot option.

BTW ......  "how to get grub into the MBR forever"  .....  is not possible, as it can be overwritten or wiped at any time.

how to use it without having all this trouble

You appear to have misunderstood the 'problem' Aleph is trying to overcome.

@Aleph
              the only solution I am aware of to the problem of automatically picking up changes in other distros Grub configuration file, is to set things up as I mentioned previously .......  install Grub to the boot sector of each distro and call those individual Grubs by using chainloader entries in the master PCLOS Grub menu.lst.

If there is another way, it would be great to read about it, as apparently using the utility to redo the MBR does not work as required.

I would have thought that this would do the same thing .....  reading back I am unsure if you tried it ....


title *buntu
root (hdN,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img

(see O-P's post on previous page)

[longtom]

You appear to have misunderstood the 'problem'

A common lament. 

And indeed I got too busy to even get started to look - weekend work should be against the law ...

You're right of course, O-P didn't have a solution for this particular and specific problem in that post I am referring to but shared with us the way he handles grub and other installations which he adds to it ....  that's the post I am after.  I am actually searching it for myself.  For now I have a small PCLinuxOS installation which does nothing but hosts my menu.list file which I edit every time I add or change an installation (which I always install without grub or lilo), which is so simple that even I can do it .... but O-P did something different - of course.

But since it has no relevance to this thread I will not bedevil you guys with it should I ever find it.   

[Just17]

You appear to have misunderstood the 'problem'

A common lament. 

And indeed I got too busy to even get started to look - weekend work should be against the law ...

You're right of course, O-P didn't have a solution for this particular and specific problem in that post I am referring to but shared with us the way he handles grub and other installations which he adds to it ....  that's the post I am after.  I am actually searching it for myself.  For now I have a small PCLinuxOS installation which does nothing but hosts my menu.list file which I edit every time I add or change an installation (which I always install without grub or lilo), which is so simple that even I can do it .... but O-P did something different - of course.

But since it has no relevance to this thread I will not bedevil you guys with it should I ever find it.   

I think that O-P's post on the previous page should solve Aleph's problem ......  but I have no means to confirm this 

For the case you describe for yourself, you would have an very easy time of it, with no editing at all, if you installed the other distro's bootloader onto the boot sector of their own partition, and then made static entries in the PCLOS menu.lst file to call those partitions.
Those static entries would call the bootloader on the partition regardless which distro is installed there.

I ran this type of installation for a long time ......  had a small 10MB or so partition with Grub installed on it, with its own menu.lst file, whose only entries were those for partitions on which I had OSs installed (including PCLOS).

It gave me a clean boot list to start, and when a partition was selected it opened the 'menu.lst' from the selected partition and presented all the boot options that particular OS provided.

Result is no clutter and no confusion with a long list and no editing needed.

regards