Multi-Boot several OS's

[oldfred]

Standard grub2 is large, larger than grub legacy and too large for a PBR. It converts to blocklists which are hard coded addresses of where on the drive the rest of the grub files it needs to boot (instead of code to search a UUID to find file and use it). If using a PBR you have blocklists. If file moves location on drive after and update or even an aggessive filecheck, you will have to reinstall grub to the PBR as address has changed. I did have grub2 in a partition with 9.10 for several months without issues but it depends on when a major update occurs.

I do not think you can use any software in one install to modify another install, unless you chroot into it and run it from that install. Or mount partition and manually edit file.

I think you are forcing syslinux to boot a complex configuration when it is not really designed for that.

Grub2 does exactly what you want without maintenance for Debian based installs (boot partition not kernel) or will chainload systems with grub legacy without issue.

[Questionario]

but isnt the issue here that grub 1.98 doesnt seem to install at all into the PBR?
extlinux boots the grub2 partitions just fine (it boots all other partitions just fine).
if you really think thats going to help, I'll try to replace extlinux with grub if you tell me how (although I dont think that will help unless the PBR will install correctly)

[oldfred]

Grub2 does not have to chainload. It will directly boot any Debian based install and most Linux installs. The issue is that you have to reboot into the grub2 install to update the entry to a new kernel in other installs. I still have one or two chainload entries in my grub2 40_custom.

Whichever install you use the most, install grub2 to the MBR and then run this:
sudo update-grub

If you can boot into the install you want as your main install, this is all you have to do, install to same drive sda, sdb etc as your install is in and set BIOS to boot that drive:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

That should get you booting everything. A very few installs need manual help. But we can add some things to simplify booting other installs, but lets see it you can boot first.

You can create a grub2 only partition if you want, but then you have to manually add all the entries.
Herman on separate grub or grub2 partition:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1320270
Grub2
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/...RUB_Partition_

[Questionario]

I dont want to be a pain but thats exactly what I didnt want to do...
My goal is to do it with a separate boot partition from where I can boot into each PBR.
Also that way grub2 wouldnt detect the non-ubuntu partition and wouldnt include it in the menu unless I manually add it (which is not what I want to do).

Is there really no way to force an install of grub 1.99 instead of grub1.98?
I really dont think grub2 will be able to boot a defective PBR either...
If you can help me adding a manual entry to grub2 (from one of the OSs (the ubuntu one to be specific) I have already installed) I'll definitely try if grub2 can boot the incomplete PBR

[oldfred]

If you have one Ubuntu that works and one that does not, add this to the 40_custom of the one that does and run sudo update-grub. Change all the 13's to whichever partition number your non-working install is in. This does assume the kernel has installed correctly and updated the links in / (root) to the newest kernel.

#Add menu entry to 40_custom, change example from sda13 to your partition.
gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom
#Turn off prober
gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
#Add this line
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
#update grub menu
sudo update-grub
# should not need this
#sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

I first saw this from Ranch hand
Note that this does not define the kernel. It defines the partition. It boots the newest bootable kernel that it finds at that partition. example based on sda13 change all 13's to your partition number.

menuentry "Daily on sda13" {
set root=(hd0,13)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda13 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img
}

[tealio]

oldfred, the following just solved my problems.

menuentry "Daily on sda13" {
set root=(hd0,13)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda13 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img
}

I was thinking about starting / hijacking a thread similar to this one, and I decided to do one last search. First hit, last post. Lucky me. I've been trying to install grub-legacy to my debian partition so i could chainload it, in order to achieve what this menuentry achieves. Thanks Thanks Thanks!

I've been searching for this very answer for quite a while, and even got some advice from you earlier in the week. THIS was what i needed. And now that i see it it seems so SIMPLE! Using the symlinks that were staring me in the face the whole time!

Again, thanks!