[Mageia-discuss] Boot loader advice please

[Goh Lip]

On 08/28/2012 07:01 PM, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On 28/08/12 11:32, Anne Wilson wrote:
>> >  On 28/08/12 11:16, Anne Wilson wrote:
>>> >>  I'm currently installing M2 as a dual boot onto sdd.  When all
>>> >>  data is transferred to the new disk, sda, sdb and sdc will be
>>> >>  removed. I assume that writing the boot loader (language fails
>>> >>  me, at the moment) to sdd is fine?  I know it's a very basic
>>> >>  question - brain is only half-functioning just now due to
>>> >>  external pressures.
>> >
>>> >>  (sda has the old entry.)
>> >
>> >  Just wanting confirmation that the existence of the old grub won't
>> >    cause any problems:-)
>> >
> Unfortunately, it does cause problems - of course sda is checked
> before sdd.  I assume that I will now need somehow get rid of the grub
> on sda - what's the best way to do that?
>
> Faint bells are ringing - about re-ordering disks, but in these days
> of using disk IDs I'm not sure whether the old ways are still valid,
> and I really don't want to screw things up to the point where recovery
> is a very big job.  I'd appreciate thoughts from a mind that is calmer
> and clearer than mine:-)
>
> Anne


Assuming you're installing and not cloning (dd) M2 to sdd, there should 
not be any problem with bootloader/grub. However there are 2 things you 
need to watch out for.

o when installing boot loader, you're asked to confirm installing to 
'sda', make sure that is the 'master drive'. To confirm disks, at root 
terminal, "fdisk -lu" or "blkid" or "parted -l", If the 'master drive' 
is not sda, but something else, go to MCC and reinstall boot loader to 
the right one, ie., specify 'sdb' or 'sdc' (the right one).

o The grub entry for grub-legacy contains
kernel (hdx,y)/boot/......
initrd (hdx,y)/boot/.......
even as it has ROOT=LABEL  or ROOT=UUID..
So the entry (hdx,y) {x and y are numbers} may change with BIOS and if 
Mageia don't boot up, you need to manually change this x figure to make 
sure it uses the right one. (grub2 don't have this problem)


Finally, should you remove sda, sdb or sdc, watch out for the above 2 
points again.

Hope this would somehow convince the need for grub2 in Mageia
(besides btrfs, UEFI, etc....)

Regards - Goh Lip