[Mageia-dev] Grub2 vs. Grub Legacy in M3

Mon Jan 28 23:38:28 CET 2013

On 28/01/13 20:01, Felix Miata wrote:
+> On 2013-01-28 19:27 (GMT) Barry Jackson composed:
+>
+>>>> http://svnweb.mageia.org/packages/cauldron/grub2/current/SOURCES/README.Mageia?view=markup
+>>>>
+>> Chainloading into grub2 is not the best way, due to the block lists
+>> problem people keep mentioning and complaining about.
+>> Grub2 can install it's kernel in the root filesystem which can be booted
+>> directly. Installing the grub2 package, whether during install or later
+>> automatically builds /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img and also creates a
+>> grub.cfg ready for use.
+>> Chanloading is un-necessary since an entry in menu.lst on a legacy
+>> system will boot a grub2 Mageia system using:
+>
+>>        title Mageia via GRUB 2
+>>     root (hdx,y)
+>>        kernel /boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.img
+>
+>> ...as explained in the above README.Mageia
+>
+>> I use a small grub2 partition sda1 as "master".
+>> To boot into Mageia grub2 systems I use the grub2 multiboot command:
+>
+>>     menuentry 'Mageia-3 multi sda6' {
+>>     search --no-floppy --label --set=root mageia-3
+>>     multiboot /boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.img
+>>     }
+>
+>> So IMO all of the FUD about "you can't install grub2 to the PBR" is
+>> pointless since it's just not necessary.
+>
+> Maybe not all is FUD. I don't see anything in that README that describes
+> a procedure for an OS/2 or eCS multibooter whose primary bootloader
+> and/or bootloader of choice is IBM Boot Manager, which is prerequisite
+> to booting OS/2 when it is installed to a logical partition (the only
+> place I've ever installed it in the past decade). It can't be told to
+> load a particular file on a partition, only its PBR via the simple
+> process of selecting a partition in its setup utility for inclusion in
+> its boot menu. It works (in effect, chainloads) fine for partitions on
+> which Grub Legacy has been configured with the Grub Legacy setup
+> command. The only options I see for such users is selecting a partition
+> with Grub Legacy configured with menu.lst stanza(s) that include
+> core.img, or configuring IBM BM as a secondary bootloader to a primary
+> bootloader that is not installed on the MBR.
+
+Maybe.
+I have no OS/2 systems to test with.
+I think grub2 can be forced to write to the PBR (but I can't find it 
+documented just now).
+Maybe you could investigate and test this and suggest an edit to the 
+README ?
+
+
+