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  • Grub II menu location.

    From Daniel65@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 09:43:48 2021
    (Thank you David for responding to my previous question.)

    On my Laptop, I have several OS's (Win7, MDA2007, MGA2, MGA4, MGA6 and
    Ubuntu 16.04, I think) and each time I've installed an OS, I think I've installed the GRUB menu with-in the OS's partition.

    So, as I boot into the MGA6 GRUB, if I select MGA4, I then boot into the
    MGA4 version of GRUB which offers Win7, MDA2007, MGA2 and MGA4. If I
    then select MGA2, I then boot into its version of GRUB which offers
    Win7, MDA2007 and MGA2. And so on!

    Of course, if I select Win7, I go straight there.

    AS I recall this is because I've always installed the GRUB menu with-in
    the OS's partition .... as I don't ever recall anywhere, in the OS installation process, being able to install GRUB elsewhere so that I'd
    only have to make an OS selection once and then be taken directly to
    that OS.

    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the
    installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection.

    What should I be looking out for, please??
    --
    Daniel

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From faeychild@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 10:24:26 2021
    On 2/9/21 6:43 pm, Daniel65 wrote:
    (Thank you David for responding to my previous question.)

    On my Laptop, I have several OS's (Win7, MDA2007, MGA2, MGA4, MGA6 and Ubuntu 16.04, I think) and each time I've installed an OS, I think I've installed the GRUB menu with-in the OS's partition.

    So, as I boot into the MGA6 GRUB, if I select MGA4, I then boot into the MGA4 version of GRUB which offers Win7, MDA2007, MGA2 and MGA4. If I
    then select MGA2, I then boot into its version of GRUB which offers
    Win7, MDA2007 and MGA2. And so on!

    Of course, if I select Win7, I go straight there.

    AS I recall this is because I've always installed the GRUB menu with-in
    the OS's partition .... as I don't ever recall anywhere, in the OS installation process, being able to install GRUB elsewhere so that I'd
    only have to make an OS selection once and then be taken directly to
    that OS.

    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection.

    What should I be looking out for, please??


    In MCC (drakconf) > Boot > Set up Boot System. This may get you somewhere.
    I think the same option appears during install

    My Boot device option is only EFI system Partition. Probably because I
    am using EFI and that is where it must be.

    --
    faeychild
    Running plasmashell 5.20.4 on 5.10.60-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64 installed via Mageia-8-x86_64-DVD.iso


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Bit Twister@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 11:35:00 2021
    On Thu, 2 Sep 2021 18:43:48 +1000, Daniel65 wrote:
    (Thank you David for responding to my previous question.)
    Grub II menu location.

    On my Laptop, I have several OS's (Win7, MDA2007, MGA2, MGA4, MGA6 and
    Ubuntu 16.04, I think) and each time I've installed an OS, I think I've installed the GRUB menu with-in the OS's partition.

    So, as I boot into the MGA6 GRUB, if I select MGA4, I then boot into the
    MGA4 version of GRUB which offers Win7, MDA2007, MGA2 and MGA4. If I
    then select MGA2, I then boot into its version of GRUB which offers
    Win7, MDA2007 and MGA2. And so on!


    Grub menu is stored in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

    Proper way to update grub.cfg is boot the desired OS and run
    update-grub2
    grub2 will then scan the drive and build a new /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
    for that install.





    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Daniel65@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 15:22:25 2021
    Bit Twister wrote on 2/9/21 8:35 pm:
    On Thu, 2 Sep 2021 18:43:48 +1000, Daniel65 wrote:
    (Thank you David for responding to my previous question.)
    Grub II menu location.

    On my Laptop, I have several OS's (Win7, MDA2007, MGA2, MGA4, MGA6 and
    Ubuntu 16.04, I think) and each time I've installed an OS, I think I've
    installed the GRUB menu with-in the OS's partition.

    So, as I boot into the MGA6 GRUB, if I select MGA4, I then boot into the
    MGA4 version of GRUB which offers Win7, MDA2007, MGA2 and MGA4. If I
    then select MGA2, I then boot into its version of GRUB which offers
    Win7, MDA2007 and MGA2. And so on!


    Grub menu is stored in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

    Proper way to update grub.cfg is boot the desired OS and run
    update-grub2
    grub2 will then scan the drive and build a new /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
    for that install.

    Ah!! So this means that after running 'update-grub2' in my soon to be
    install MGA8, if I were to select the MGA6 entry from the Grub2 menu, it
    would start running MGA6 directly ...... RIGHT??
    --
    Daniel

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 17:00:34 2021
    On 2/9/21 6:43 pm, Daniel65 wrote:
    (Thank you David for responding to my previous question.)

    On my Laptop, I have several OS's (Win7, MDA2007, MGA2, MGA4, MGA6 and Ubuntu 16.04, I think) and each time I've installed an OS, I think I've installed the GRUB menu with-in the OS's partition.

    So, as I boot into the MGA6 GRUB, if I select MGA4, I then boot into the MGA4 version of GRUB which offers Win7, MDA2007, MGA2 and MGA4. If I
    then select MGA2, I then boot into its version of GRUB which offers
    Win7, MDA2007 and MGA2. And so on!

    Of course, if I select Win7, I go straight there.

    AS I recall this is because I've always installed the GRUB menu with-in
    the OS's partition .... as I don't ever recall anywhere, in the OS installation process, being able to install GRUB elsewhere so that I'd
    only have to make an OS selection once and then be taken directly to
    that OS.

    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection.

    What should I be looking out for, please??
    Been there, done that. Maybe you need refind. It is the only popular bootloader I know of that isn't tied to a specific distro on your system.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From David W. Hodgins@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 20:37:25 2021
    On Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00:34 -0400, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the
    installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection.

    You need to install grub legacy (grub-0.97-50.mga8) in order to be able to install to a partition boot record, instead of to a drive's master partition table. The drive must use a mbr style partition table.

    grub2 only supports being installed to a master boot record, not a partition boot record.

    What should I be looking out for, please??

    I'm pretty sure the installer now only supports installing to a master boot record, not a partition boot record, so you'll have to install to a mbr, then manually change it to a pbr after install. The grub legacy package doesn't work on some newer hardware and is no longer supported upstream.

    Been there, done that. Maybe you need refind. It is the only popular bootloader I know of that isn't tied to a specific distro on your system.

    refind, like grub2-efi, only works on systems booted in efi mode. It won't work on a system that boots in legacy bios mode.


    --
    Change dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org to davidwhodgins@teksavvy.com for
    email replies.

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  • From faeychild@2:250/1 to All on Thu Sep 2 22:50:24 2021
    On 3/9/21 12:22 am, Daniel65 wrote:

    Ah!! So this means that after running 'update-grub2' in my soon to be install MGA8, if I were to select the MGA6 entry from the Grub2 menu, it would start running MGA6 directly ...... RIGHT??


    It would launch MGA6 Correct!


    --
    faeychild
    Running plasmashell 5.20.4 on 5.10.60-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64 installed via Mageia-8-x86_64-DVD.iso


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Daniel65@2:250/1 to All on Sun Sep 5 13:02:21 2021
    David W. Hodgins wrote on 3/9/21 5:37 am:
    On Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00:34 -0400, Doug Laidlaw
    <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the
    installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection.

    You need to install grub legacy (grub-0.97-50.mga8) in order to be able to install to a partition boot record, instead of to a drive's master
    partition
    table. The drive must use a mbr style partition table.

    grub2 only supports being installed to a master boot record, not a
    partition boot record.

    What should I be looking out for, please??

    I'm pretty sure the installer now only supports installing to a master boot record, not a partition boot record, so you'll have to install to a mbr, then manually change it to a pbr after install.

    I don't know if I should ever question what you type, David, but that
    seems backwards to me.

    I thought I would have been installing Grub2 into the partition in which
    MGA6 resides, then, if I selected MGA4 from the MGA6 Grub2 menu, then
    the system would have had to leave the MGA6 partition and look elsewhere
    (the MBR, maybe) to find out which partition MGA4 was installed in and,
    then, would find the MGA4 Grub2 menu there from which I had to select MGA4.
    --
    Daniel

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From David W. Hodgins@2:250/1 to All on Sun Sep 5 22:51:09 2021
    On Sun, 05 Sep 2021 08:02:21 -0400, Daniel65 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

    David W. Hodgins wrote on 3/9/21 5:37 am:
    On Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00:34 -0400, Doug Laidlaw
    <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
    As I typed, I guess this selection is made somewhere with-in the
    installation process, .... but, it seems, I keep missing that selection. >>
    You need to install grub legacy (grub-0.97-50.mga8) in order to be able to >> install to a partition boot record, instead of to a drive's master
    partition
    table. The drive must use a mbr style partition table.

    grub2 only supports being installed to a master boot record, not a
    partition boot record.

    What should I be looking out for, please??

    I'm pretty sure the installer now only supports installing to a master boot >> record, not a partition boot record, so you'll have to install to a mbr,
    then manually change it to a pbr after install.

    I don't know if I should ever question what you type, David, but that
    seems backwards to me.

    I thought I would have been installing Grub2 into the partition in which
    MGA6 resides, then, if I selected MGA4 from the MGA6 Grub2 menu, then
    the system would have had to leave the MGA6 partition and look elsewhere
    (the MBR, maybe) to find out which partition MGA4 was installed in and,
    then, would find the MGA4 Grub2 menu there from which I had to select MGA4.

    I just tested to confirm. On a uefi system, the only option is grub2-efi installed
    to the ESP. On a bios system, it no longer lists individual partitions as an option
    for a place to install either grub-legacy or grub2. The option to select an individual partition was removed from the installer as part of the addition of support for gpt file systems.

    It can still be used manually after installation, or by upgrading an existing bios/mbr install, but not for new installs during installation.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins

    --
    Change dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org to davidwhodgins@teksavvy.com for
    email replies.

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