Grub 2 Basics

[attila_66]

Hello,

Is there any graphical Grub menu editor for Kubuntu 9.10??
I just want to edit the default loading item on grub menu.
(Kubuntu 8.10 instead of 9.10)


Thanks.

[bluesscream]

Tx drs305 for your great work. I read your howto again a little more attentively, and figured out that there was a relict from early karmic alphas in my /etc/grub.d, a file named 30_otheros with nondescriptive static entries, competing with 30_os-prober. I removed the exec-flag.
Is there a limit for the number of oses/kernels 30_os-prober can handle? There are only two automatic entries for my jaunty-partition: only the rt-kernels are found, not the -generics (untouched from standard repos).
Another mystery: I deactivated "recovery" in /etc/default/grub, but when I added another drive containing a hardy 8.04.3 with single 2.6.24-24-generic kernel, reconfigure-grub nevertheless made an additional recovery entry, but only for this drive, not for the other ubuntu partitions.

[drs305]

Is there a limit for the number of oses/kernels 30_os-prober can handle? There are only two automatic entries for my jaunty-partition: only the rt-kernels are found, not the -generics (untouched from standard repos).

There is no limit that I am aware of. However, 30_os-prober needs work from what I've read on the forum. It is still having problems locating all a system's OSs. Given the scope, I guess that is to be expected. Many times running update-grub after the installation finds some of OS's not found during installation, but there users who can't yet get Grub 2 to find everything. I guess you'll just have to keep monitoring the Karmic forum or the Launchpad bug reports to track developments.

Another mystery: I deactivated "recovery" in /etc/default/grub, but when I added another drive containing a hardy 8.04.3 with single 2.6.24-24-generic kernel, reconfigure-grub nevertheless made an additional recovery entry, but only for this drive, not for the other ubuntu partitions.

Funny you should bring this up. I am working on a post about how to tweak the actual titles - something I don't think comes "pre-installed" in the scripts. While you can disable memtest86+ and recovery modes for 10_linux, I learned today as did you that it doesn't apply to those found with 30_os-prober.

The guide I'm writing provides a way to eliminate memtest86+ and recovery modes but I'm not a programmer and my bash skills are pathetic at best. But I plan on posting what I've learned and let everyone improve on them.

[markbuntu]

I have multiple distros which change all the time. I chainload to them so I don't have to change my MBR grub. Like when I replace Mandriva with Arch legacy grub could care less and everything boots just fine no matter what and I do not have to wade through an endless list of kernels to find the one I want.

What I would like to do is just dirt simple chainload with grub2.
Can I do this???
None of the tutorials or wikis I have seen so far seem to have a very clear answer.

From them I gather that Grub2 seems to rely on UUIDs and these can change when distros are replaced and partitions edited which would be a serious issue with how I go about things.

Running reconfigure-grub on my MBR distro every time one of my other distros gets a kernel update or I replace it seems a ridiculous way to go about this and a serious regression in usability, at least for me.

I am in no real hurry since I do not plan to replace the MBR distro until well after the next LTS is released. If the next time you update the OP you could include something about this it would be greatly appreciated. If I figure it out in the mean time I will let you know.

BTW, chainloading to grub2 works just fine but it complains when it is not on the MBR and tells me that I am making a serious error in not putting it there. I noticed that message in the terminal when grub2 was updating itself on karmic after a kernel update. I think that anyone who would actually see that message would not need to since only people like me actually watch their updates that closely, lol!!.

Anyway, thanks for the great tutorial.

regards,
mark

[fourscore]

Based on the above tutorial i am trying out grub2 in Jaunty. Am able to boot into Jaunty with grub2. I have also set a custom splash image.
One query - In other previous version of grub I could set the size of the viewport window by the command - viewport 0 0 80 25. What is the equivalent command in Grub2 to change the size of the viewport window and where/how do we set this.

Folks - pls help with above query.

[drs305]

Folks - pls help with above query.

fourscore,

I don't know the answer to this question.

You will probably have more success either doing a search for this issue or posting a new thread which would probably get more responses directly related to your request. I hope you find an answer, as I'm sure there are others who would like to know as well.

[igoddard]

The manual is still in development - vestigial would be the best description. A couple of the sites to which you link point out that Grub 2 is still beta or that it isn't ready for new Linux users. So why, oh why are we being lumbered with it at this stage? I've just blown an hour or so trying to boot single user & failed. Now I've found this guide I may be able to make some progress but Grub 2 really shouldn't have been included until (a) it was ready and (b) its own site had useable docs. No, make that just (a) because until its own site has useable docs it isn't ready.

Can I suggest that Karmic revert to legacy grub. Don't use grub2 until such time as it's ready for the big time. 10.04, 10.10 or whenever. If the boot loader breaks the whole system breaks. It's far, far too important to go with something that's not ready.

[bapoumba]

Ping drs
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...2&postcount=65

[uflieven]

Hi,

I'm creating custom live-cd's following the guide from Capink on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=688872.

I want to use his instructions to build a custom Karmic live-cd.
His instructions are very good, but grub is used instead of grub2 (just because no one was using grub2 in early 2008). That presents me with a problem: How do I have to adapt his guide, to have it working for Karmic?

I can't use menu.lst anymore, I don't know what UUID my cd-drive will get while booting the live-cd, and so on. So if anyone could give me any hints?
By the way, is there a possibility to still use grub-legacy as boot-loader of the live-cd? I guess that solves the problem too, and it's probably the easiest solution.

Thanks for helping out.

[duncan_bayne]

So I'm spending my Saturday afternoon re-writing a bunch of deployment scripts to accommodate the move from Grub to Grub2

The thing I'm stuck on is that I want to prevent the user from being able to boot to Recovery Mode.

I've set up Grub2 so it doesn't display the menu, and removed the recovery option from the menu, but the user can still bring the menu up by holding down SHIFT. Then they can boot to Recovery Mode (see How to Boot to the Recovery Mode w/o a Menu Option above).

Surely, there must be a way of turning this off? Would greatly appreciate any help, as the Grub2 documentation is ... sparse ...