Re: F8/F9 Multiboot question

Tim wrote:

On Sun, 2008-08-03 at 15:56 -0700, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:

What is the command for installing the "MBR" and grub into each
of their respective partitions?

I tried: grub-install --recheck /dev/sdc1, and likewise for /dev/sdc2
and /dev/sdc3 but nothing happens.

I've never bothered with grub-install, other than the one time it didn't
do what it was supposed to.  After that I decided not to bother with it
again.  I issue the real commands directly:

The grub command to enter a GRUB shell. The root command to tell GRUB where /boot will be (and GRUB's root is held). The find command to check that GRUB can find the files it needs. The setup command to setup which drive MBR to write to, or which

partition.

And the quit command to write all the changes and exit. Pasting of a session is below, the GRUB input prompts are beside

"grub>", the rest is output.

[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> root (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub>  find /grub/stage1
find /grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  23 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+23 p
(hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit
quit
[root@localhost ~]#

My set of examples picks my first boot partition (the root command), and
writes back to the disc's MBR (the setup command).  You'd change the
root and setup parameters to suit each installation, to install GRUB
"stage ones" into each boot partition.  In your case, you'd pick the
same drive and partition for the root and setup commands.

By the way, grub-install is just a script.  You can read it and see how
it works, if you really want to.

Ok, I did.  Thanks.

Since I had copies of /boot for f8 and f9 I simply copied f8's boot
files into /dev/sdc2 and f9's boot files into /dev/sdc3 but
for /dev/sdc1 (boot-sys), I copied f8's boot files into /dev/sdc1,
removed initd*, vm*, and System*, edited grub/grub.conf with the
chain-loaders like you said.

Hmm, I don't know exactly what you mean by "boot files".  Each /boot
partition would have that OS's kernel files, and a grub sub-directory
for that installation's GRUB files (menus, stage loaders, etc.).  There
shouldn't be any need to copy things about.

Inside /boot/grub:
[snip!]

Yes, that is what I meant by (grub) "/boot files"

But I am at loss to figure out how to get each of the 3 partitions
with it's own "MBR".

Terminology problem...  MBR is Master Boot Record, there's only one of
them per disc.  Initial stages of GRUB can be put in the disc MBR, or at
the beginning of individual partitions (not a MBR, but something
similar, and a mental blank strikes me as to its proper name).

Well, I know there is only one MBR, but I was trying to identify the boot
record for each partition and I did not have a name for it, which is why
I quoted "MBR" - I did not know the proper name either!

HELP!  All of my (fedora) drives are no longer bootable!  When I boot,
all I get is one message at the top-left corner: "GRUB"  I cannot type
anything at this point, it just hangs.  So what do I need to do to recover
grub?

Thanks!
Dan


--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list