[Boot-Repair] Graphical tool to repair the PC boot in one click

[YannBuntu]

Hello djallalnamri,

Boot-Repair should be able to give you access to all your operating systems.

The default settings ("First repair") will reinstall GRUB in the MBR of all your disks, so that the disk on which your BIOS boots does not matter. You can also go in the "Advanced options" in order to choose to install GRUB only in the MBR of one disk.

If you are not sure, tick the "Create BootInfo" in the Advanced Options and indicate us the resulting URL.

[djallalnamri]

hello
first thanks for reply
this is the URL :
http://pastebin.com/QZFR6TRD

[YannBuntu]

Hi djallalnamri
i saw you use French system, let's continue in French by email.

[ottosykora]

@YannBuntu

Q1: can I replace grub2 installed in the root partition with legacy grub? respective can I install grub legacy with it in root partition?

note: the installation of grub2 into root partition is not best thing apparently, if parts of the grub get moved let say on major upgrades etc, system gets unbootable, grub legacy seems to be little bit more stable here.

Q2: can I install grub to a dedicated grub partition (not to confuse with boot partition)

[YannBuntu]

Hi ottosykora,

R1: no for both questions. Contrary is possible (replace GRUB1 by GRUB2). GRUB Legacy is not supported any more, so Boot-Repair focuses on GRUB2. Therefore, Boot-Repair can do (the "OS by default" option) a reinstall+update of GRUB Legacy on condition that its package is already installed.

I confirm that installing GRUB on root partition is not recommended by GRUB developers.

R2: what do you call a dedicated grub partition ?

[ottosykora]

Hi ottosykora,

R1: no for both questions. Contrary is possible (replace GRUB1 by GRUB2). GRUB Legacy is not supported any more, so Boot-Repair focuses on GRUB2. Therefore, Boot-Repair can do (the "OS by default" option) a reinstall+update of GRUB Legacy on condition that its package is already installed.

I confirm that installing GRUB on root partition is not recommended by GRUB developers.

R2: what do you call a dedicated grub partition ?

ok, pitty, as this procedure to replace the grub2 with grub legacy is always a time consuming after each install.
Could I put this function (replace grub2 with grub legacy) on a wish list?
Particularly needed to purge grub2 and install grub legacy.
It is very important, when many os are on one computer and linux systems have to be chainloaded. The use of the current grub2 is risky in such case, as it gets easy damaged. And there are AFAIK no real alternatives except Lilo, which needs again reconfig manually after each kernel change etc. Or do you know any alternatives to work reliably?

Dedicated grub partition, well I call it grub, but it is not an actual boot partition to any particular system, it just holds parts of grub and menu for chainloading the rest. It has no kernels in it etc.

[YannBuntu]

How do you create this kind of "grub partition" ?

For my information, why do you chainload ? what is your main bootloader?
personally I just put GRUB2 in the MBR and in the rare cases I have to update it, I do it in 1 click with Boot-Repair ! (just run Boot-Repair and click Apply)

[ottosykora]

How do you create this kind of "grub partition" ?

For my information, why do you chainload ? what is your main bootloader?
personally I just put GRUB2 in the MBR and in the rare cases I have to update it, I do it in 1 click with Boot-Repair ! (just run Boot-Repair and click Apply)

ok the grub partition is created by any partitioning tool as gparted or so.
Systems wehere I use it, i installed the grub legacy there with first part in mbr and chainload from there with most simple menu.lst diferent things, like w98, dos6.22, w7, ubuntu , fedora, debian etc.
To install the grub there, I used partially copy/paste from other system to make it simple and activated all kind of with the supper grub disk (legacy).
I do not load from there any particular kernels or other details, just use the hide/unhide for primary windows boot and also most simple menu.lst entries for linux which do not need to change except I delete one system completely, e.g.:
title Debian Leny
root (hd0,13)
chainloader +1

This way I do not need to remember which linux partition actually contains the grub files and I can delete any of the distros and the rest is still operational without any tricks.

Otherwise I use also on some older computers the bootmagic from powerquest and on some more recent others acronis .
I know also acronis has some problems, but it is comes out of the box install/unistall with a mouse click, does the job, no hassle with strange syntax in config files and such. (We have 2011 today and so Iexpect all work from intuitive gui straight away).

I also have on one older computer with bootmanager from XP loading knoppix and I used to have one with w7 loading knoppix too.
In both cases this is in fact a chainloding where loader is needed in the actual partition or os own boot partition.


And fine, you put the grub2 in mbr, but where is the rest of the grub then ? In which partition if I have 6 os installed?
I think as ususal, in the last one installed?

[arclance]

@arclance : please indicate your BootInfo URL so that we can check. For the moment, I recommend you burn and use Boot-Repair-Disk, so that you can choose the "64bits session" on start-up.

I figured out the problem I had. Grub will not boot into LVM2 partitions until the are manually mounted in ubuntu first.
After doing that and running update-grub I can boot into the Fedora 14 partion on my laptop.

Here is the Bootinfo from before mounting the LVM2 partion
http://paste.ubuntu.com/672128/
and after
http://paste.ubuntu.com/673376/

I don't think a boot disk is a good idea for me because the disk drive in my laptop is starting to fail and it has been outputting corrupt data recently.
Is it possible to make a usb thumbdrive boot a 64-bit OS by using a 32-bit OS? The last time I tried with your 64-bit boot repair disk it did not work, it did not boot at all.

[YannBuntu]

@ottosykora: ok, thank you. I knew someone-else who did the same as you, but he ended using GRUB2 in the MBR, because Legacy did not recognize some of his OS.
When you put GRUB2 in the MBR, just put the rest in one of your Ubuntu or Debian-derivative OS (preferably the one you use the most). E.g. if you have 5 OS and among them your main OS in Ubuntu11.04, just install Boot-Repair in Ubuntu11.04, and each time you want to update your menu run it and click "Apply", that's it. No need for separate partition, or manual file editing.

@Arclance: for 64bits PC, Boot-Repair must be used in a 64bits session (Ubuntu Secured 64bits for example). Also, please update Boot-Repair before running it, as there is beta GPT and LVM support in last versions.