Bootloader main options
With a Bios system
If you prefer different
bootloader settings to those chosen automatically by the installer, you
can change them here.
You may already have
another operating system on your machine, in which case you need to decide
whether to add Mageia to your existing bootloader, or allow Mageia to
create a new one.
The Mageia graphical menus are nice :
Using a Mageia
bootloader
By default, Mageia
writes a new GRUB (legacy) bootloader into the MBR (Master Boot Record)
of your first hard drive. If you already have other operating systems
installed, Mageia attempts to add them to your new Mageia boot
menu.
Mageia now also offers GRUB2 as an optional
bootloader in addition to GRUB legacy and Lilo.
Linux systems which
use the GRUB2 bootloader are not currently supported by GRUB (legacy)
and will not be recognized if the default GRUB bootloader is
used.
The best solution here is to use the GRUB2
bootloader which is available at the Summary page during
installation.
Using an
existing bootloader
If you decide to use an
existing bootloader then you will need to remember to STOP at the
summary page during the installation and click the Bootloader
Configure button, which will allow you to change
the bootloader install location.
Do not select a device
e.g."sda", or you will overwrite your existing MBR. You must select the
root partition that you chose during the partitioning phase earlier,
e.g. sda7.
To be clear, sda is a
device, sda7 is a partition on that device.
Go to tty2 with
Ctrl+Alt+F2 and type df to check where your
/ (root) partition is. Ctrl+Alt+F7 takes you back
to the installer screen.
The exact procedure for
adding your Mageia system to an existing bootloader is beyond the scope
of this help, however in most cases it will involve running the relevant
bootloader installation program which should detect and add it
automatically. See the documentation for the operating system in
question.
Bootloader
advanced option
If you have very
limited disk space for the / partition that contains
/tmp, click on Advanced and
check the box for Clean /tmp at each boot. This
helps to maintain some free space.
With an UEFI system
With an UEFI system, the user interface is slightly different as you
cannot choose the boot loader since only Grub2-efi is available.
If Mageia is the first system installed on your computer, the
installer created an ESP (EFI System Partition) to receive the bootloader
(Grub2-efi). If there was already UEFI operating systems previously
installed on your computer (Windows 8 for example), the Mageia installer
detected the existing ESP created by Windows and added grub2-efi. Although
it is possible to have several ESPs, only one is advised and enough
whatever the number of operating systems you have.
Don't modify the "Boot Device" unless really knowing what you
do.