William Case wrote: > Hi; > > To do that Grub needs its own generic file system (rudimentary though it > is) and it's own small kernel that allows it to operate on *any* > machine. The manuals (although I agree they could have some basic (less > technical) explanations included) deal only with the GRUB file system > and kernel making no assumptions about the partitions/files/kernel(s) > that will eventually be loaded. > Not exactly correct. Grub first stage is in the boot record - ether the MBR or the partition boot record. This is a small boot loader that uses the BIOS to ether load stage 2, or stage 1.5. If it loads stage 1.5, it then can read the grub menu and stage 2 from the file system that stage 1.5 understands. Part of the Grub install process tells it where to find stage 1.5 and the file system for stage 2 and the menu. This can be any of the file systems that have a stage 1.5 for them. If I am reading thing correctly, stage 1.5 must be in a fixed location. So if you relocate it, you must update the pointers in stage 1. I am less clear about how it handles loading stage 2 directly, without loading a stage 1.5. I have never used this feature, and I am not even sure how to install Grub that way. I would expect that stage 1 would have pointers to stage 2 instead of stage 1.5, and you would have to update pointers when you make changes as you do when using LILO. I would love to hear from someone that uses Grub this way. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
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