question about grub 2/bootloader configuration

[z]

First of all, forgive my naivete (I do not update myself as regularly as I should about the ongoings with Mageia), but I was curious if grub 2 is going to be the standard bootloader for Mageia 3. I read a couple places that it may have both bootloaders. The reason I'm wondering is because I currently have a dual boot system using easy BCD for the bootloader configuration which easily allows me to add/remove a distro without having to use the windows recovery disc. I attempted to load an ubuntu derivative on another machine (also dual boot) but I could not choose where to install the bootloader. My only option was to overwrite the windows boot loader. From some basic reading I discovered the reason was (supposedly) because grub 2 will not allow you to chose which partition it gets installed to. I do not know if this is true or not though. Could someone let me know if I upgrade to Mageia 3, will I be able to install the bootloader on the linux partition? Thanks.

[claire]

Grub2 does not officially allow you to install to a partition, it needs to be in MBR. I've heard it actually can work in a partition but that isn't supported by any means.

Mageia 3 will have a choice of grub, grub2 or lilo too IINM. Mageia 2 allows you to choose between grub and lilo.

To choose which it uses simply select it in the bootloader settings of the sumary page during installation.

[gohlip]

z said

From some basic reading I discovered the reason was (supposedly) because grub 2 will not allow you to chose which partition it gets installed to.

Mageia (at least for now) requires grub (both v) to be installed to mbr and installation will fail if one attempts to install to its own partition.
But for all my other distros' (debian derivatives, arch linux derivatives), I always install to their own partitions at installation and there is no problem. I won't know about Fedora or Suse (hey, I've got Mageia, right?) but as they still use "grub2-mkconfig"..., I think they, like Mageia, may similarly require grub to be installed to mbr. Hope this clarifies.

I experimented with Easy BCD long long ago and last again when grub2 was introduced (about 5 years ago) and there was no problem (Mageia may need to amend with "nokmsboot"). If I recall, after linux installations (to mbr), boot up windows and fire up easyBCD and proceed. To revert back to linux boot (to mbr), just "grub-install /dev/sda" or "grub2-install /dev/sda".

claire aka MrsB said

Mageia 3 will have a choice of grub, grub2 or ......

Does that mean only one and not both will be installed? If so, that's good to know.
Currently, after installation, I uninstalled grub-legacy leaving grub2 alone.
And can we hope to have full functionalities of grub2 too?
(like mkrescue, --boot-directory, uefi, btrfs)

[jkerr82508]

Grub2 does not officially allow you to install to a partition, it needs to be in MBR. I've heard it actually can work in a partition but that isn't supported by any means.

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Feature:Grub ... ent_status

Jim

[gohlip]

Great! And hot off the press too. And with kde 4.10.2 as well. Again pleasantly surprised that systemd is in Mageia3.
Kudos!

[hal8000]

Does anyone know the version of os-prober that will be supplied with grub2 ?

If you had a mixed dual boot linux system with systems using grub and grub2 ,
the os-proper script in grub2 failed to properly detect systems using grub legacy;
it counted partitions starting at 1, (and not from 0 as in grub legacy).

This was finally fixed in April 2012 and affected many distributions finally fixed
in Ubuntu 12.04

If the prober script is after April 2012 grub2 will co-exist peacefully with anyone
using a grub legacy system.

Never liked grub2 but went on to burg which is the next stage adding icons to the
boot menu, see below:

http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/12/6-be ... stall.html

Having said that, the bootloader screen is not there long for any distribution.

[doktor5000]

Check viewtopic.php?p=17685#p17685 or that thread in general.
Barry Jackson fixed that bug and sent the patch for it upstream, actually already in May 2012 IIRC