[SOLVED] Is it possible to not create GRUB during installation or kernel change?

[Old-Polack]

now I know what you live for .......  using wipes of various types

Re...now I know what you live for .......  using wipes of various  Colors 

Methinks you are having a bit of a lend, and making sport of me, and certain of my proclivities. Mayhap I be wrong, but think not. 

[pclinmike]

Just a bit of fun 
You make your posts so easy to follow with the help of all your many color's, it must take you some time to do them because I sometimes try to use color's to show things up better and I have noted others on the forum taking note of your great work.
Well Done.

[Old-Polack]

Just a bit of fun 
You make your posts so easy to follow with the help of all your many color's, it must take you some time to do them because I sometimes try to use color's to show things up better and I have noted others on the forum taking note of your great work.
Well Done.

I know that. It made me laugh, so thought I'd return the favor.

[pclinmike]

 

[Just17]

Seems O-P is vying for the title of

"colourful old cuss"


 

[agmg]

Guys, I think I need a little help (again)

I want to install bootloaders on partitions /dev/sdb6 and /dev/sdb8 which correspond to Test32 and Test64 installations on my second disk.
I will then chainload them to the main GRUB which is installed on /dev/sda1. I also have Windows MBR on /dev/sdb1.

I would post the output from fdisk -l but I'm not at home right now...
I don't want specific instructions, just some general hints...

What would be the best procedure to follow?
Should I go to PCC -> Boot -> Set up boot system from within each test install and write again the bootloader to each partition?
Or should I use a LiveCD? (and with what command?)

[Old-Polack]

Try something like this;

[root@localhost ~]# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.


    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> find /boot/grub/stage2
find /boot/grub/stage2
 (hd0,0)
 (hd0,6)
 (hd0,7)
 (hd0,8)
 (hd0,12)
 (hd0,13)
 (hd0,14)
 (hd0,16)
 (hd1,0)
 (hd1,7)
 (hd2,0)
 (hd2,2)
 (hd2,4)
 (hd2,5)
 (hd2,6)
 (hd2,8)
 (hd2,9)
 (hd2,10)
 (hd2,14)
 (hd2,15)
grub> root (hd2,5)
root (hd2,5)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd2,5)
setup (hd2,5)
 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 (hd2,5)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd2,5)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd2,5) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu.lst "... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit
quit
[root@localhost ~]#

Use the actual partition designations for your installations, as revealed by the first grub find command. Do the root (<whatever>) and setup (<whatever>) for each of the two partitions you want grub installed to.

[agmg]

Thank you Old-Polack. I had found this older post from you:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,62786.msg508062.html#msg508062

but I wanted some advice first.

The whole procedure should be followed from a Live session or can this be done from my main install which is on a different hard drive?

Your help is precious!

[Old-Polack]

Thank you Old-Polack. I had found this older post from you:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,62786.msg508062.html#msg508062

but I wanted some advice first.

The whole procedure should be followed from a Live session or can this be done from my main install which is on a different hard drive?

Your help is precious!

You can do it from any installation that uses legacy grub. I just did. The previous reply is a direct copy/paste from a root terminal on the PCLinuxOS installation I'm running. and done immediately prior to posting the reply. It can also be done from a PCLinuxOS liveCD, but not necessary in this case.

The link you posted is for restoring grub to the MBR, rather than the partition. Note the setup command, in the reply above, uses the same partition designation as the root designation.

[agmg]

Yes, I can see that now.

Repair: setup (hd0)
Setup: setup (hd2,5)

I will try this when I get back home.
I'm confident that it will work as expected.

Thanks again, O-P!

[Old-Polack]

Yes, I can see that now.

Repair: setup (hd0)
Setup: setup (hd2,5)

I will try this when I get back home.
I'm confident that it will work as expected.

Thanks again, O-P!

The (hd2,5) is a designation for a partition on my machine, and points to the 64bit test installation on my third hard drive. The designation you will need to use will come from the find /boot/grub/stage2 command done on your machine. You can copy/paste it, from the find command results, to prevent typo errors.

[agmg]

I just wanted to point the difference between the two procedures... mostly for myself

I know my system will have different partition designations, don't worry.
I will use the find command first from my main install and then proceed accordingly...

[Old-Polack]

I just wanted to point the difference between the two procedures... mostly for myself

I know my system will have different partition designations, don't worry.
I will use the find command first from my main install and then proceed accordingly...

Just being redundant, to be sure. 

[agmg]

I know O-P. I'm glad you do

[agmg]

All went fine. I have managed to install GRUB on the two PCLinuxOS partitions and edit my main GRUB to be able to boot to them.
Just a couple of simple commands and you can get your system the way you want it!

The power of Linux! Never stops to amaze me!  

Funny thing? Windows could not boot up after the changes I made  



It's easy to fix but I'm pretty sure I didn't touch the Windows partition... why does it complain?
I'm not surprised. It's another proof that Windows is just a crap OS...