Any way to update mutiple linux OS's without running OS-proble

[archp2009]

I have been collecting Linux OS's for some years. At this point I have 15 of them in addition to multiple Windows OS partitions. I find that the OS probing process adds about 10 minutes to each update for each Linux distro. Is there a way to do the updates one at a time and turn off the OS prober each time and not corrupt my grub menu. Here is the list: Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 29296969 29294922 14G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 29298686 625141759 595843074 284.1G f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 29298688 39452671 10153984 4.9G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc6 39454720 82075647 42620928 20.3G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 82077696 123844607 41766912 19.9G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc8 123846656 154687487 30840832 14.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 154689536 185438207 30748672 14.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc10 185440256 218402815 32962560 15.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc11 218404864 259850239 41445376 19.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc12 259852288 294955007 35102720 16.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc13 294957056 331900927 36943872 17.6G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc14 331902976 366860287 34957312 16.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc15 366862336 402122751 35260416 16.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc16 402124800 435568639 33443840 16G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc17 435570408 466913159 31342752 15G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc18 466913280 500070399 33157120 15.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sdc19 533502648 625141759 91639112 43.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc20 500072448 533501951 33429504 16G 83 Linux

[Dennis N]

There is a two-part answer:

1) Use custom menus that you never have to update.
2) Turn off the os-prober in every OS after creating the custom menus.

For (1) I used this guide to make my custom menu. Study it carefully:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/CustomMenus

For (2) you simply run this command in every OS to turn it off.
sudo chmod -x /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober

The key to avoiding updating is in the section "Maintenance-Free Menu Entries" where you replace the normal linux and initrd lines in each OS menu entry by the type of entry shown there. Notice these have no kernel number. They use symbolic links to point to the most recent kernel instead.
---------------------------------
My /etc/grub.d


dmn@Daphne:/etc/grub.d$ ls
00_header 06_k-ubuntu-mate-1404 10_linux 40_custom
05_debian_theme 06_m-ubuntu-mate-1504 20_linux_xen 41_custom
06_d-xubuntu1404 06_n-xubuntu-1504-beta1 20_memtest86+ README
06_f-lubuntu1404 06_p-linux-mint-mate-17 30_os-prober
06_h-lubuntu1504 06_r-Ubuntu-Mate-1404-2 30_uefi-firmware

Each file starting with 06 is a custom menu entry for just one OS. (You can start these file names with any of 06, 07, 08, 09 so my use of only 06 is arbitrary).

06_f-lubuntu1404 looks like this, and was copied from grub.cfg, pasted into 40_custom, title then edited to what I want to appear, changing the linux and initrd lines, then finally saved as 06_f-lubuntu1404 in /etc/grub.d. Very simple.


dmn@Daphne:/etc/grub.d$ cat 06_f-lubuntu1404
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry 'LUBUNTU 14.04 (sda6)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-05b2fc6c-8b44-4745-a8d3-5f8fd8b357f2' {
recordfail
load_video
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt6'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt6 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt6 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt6 05b2fc6c-8b44-4745-a8d3-5f8fd8b357f2
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 05b2fc6c-8b44-4745-a8d3-5f8fd8b357f2
fi
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=05b2fc6c-8b44-4745-a8d3-5f8fd8b357f2 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /initrd.img
}


That's my method, with thanks to the author of that guide I linked to.

[oldfred]

This is very similar to Dennis N's link and procedure which looks very good.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/CustomMenus
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2076205

I keep one install in control & let grub update its kernels, but then add other installs to 40_custom. I also add direct loop mount boot of ISO and keep os-prober turned off.

I also hate a new install as yes it takes forever to parse all the other installs & it seems to do it more than once.