On Wed, 2011-02-02 at 16:52 -0500, Chris Knadle wrote:
> There are several situations where you'd want to install GRUB2 into a > /boot partition -- however, unfortunately installing GRUB2 onto a > partition rather than the MBR isn't officially supported AFAIK. Doing > so requires using "blocklists" (that means a list of disk blocks), which > is the complaint you'll get from GRUB2. I'm using this configuration on > one Desktop box, and over time I've found it to be a bit buggy and > problematic, because upon upgrades sometimes GRUB2 installs itself into > the MBR instead of /boot, which causing the bootup to endlessly restart. > > So if you have the choice, install GRUB2 into the MBR. > Thanks for the explanation of blocklists Chris. I just recently had a similar dilemma. On a newly built PC, I set up dual boot of Fedora 14 and Ubuntu 10.10. Fedora 14 was installed first and Anaconda (installer) installed Grub Legacy in the MBR. I then installed Ubuntu 10.10. I didn't notice Ubuntu installer giving me a choice of where to install Grub2. It overwrote the MBR. But it noticed Fedora and included it in the boot menu. However, Fedora kernel upgrades would not be incorporated in that boot menu. So I had the dilemma of whether to use Grub or Grub2 in the MBR. I decided based on this very informative Grub2 tutorial: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html He covers dual boot where one OS uses Grub and the other uses Grub2. His recommendation is that for dual boot, due to its long track record, Grub should be the choice for the MBR. Grub2 should go in the boot sector of the partition for the second OS. He feels Grub is more dependable than Grub2. He acknowledges that installation of Grub2 in the boot sector is discouraged by the Grub2 developers. Grub2 is supposed to be a significant improvement over Grub. Yet Grub fully supports installation in the partition boot sector and Grub2 doesn't. Isn't this a significant step backward? _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Feb 2 - Zimbra Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6
