New Type of Boot Grub menu in Ubuntu 9.10 AMD64

[mhbell]

Has anyone noticed that the grub menu in Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 is different? Looks like they put everything in the boot menu. Maybe to make it boot faster. lots of Mod files in the grub folder. they have a music symbols icon, but I believe they are modules. I have no Idea about how to put a entry from it into my main grub menu for 9.04's menu.lst.Mel symbols/boot/grub/usb.mod/boot/grub/usb_keyboard.modbelow is a sample of the grub config file. no menu.lst### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then have_grubenv=true load_envfiset default="0"if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry} save_env saved_entry prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entryfiinsmod ext2set root=(hd0,1)search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set efb58ece-47d7-4d46-9368-9f071d952288if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then set gfxmode=640x480 insmod gfxterm insmod vbe if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't # understand terminal_output terminal gfxterm fifiif [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then set timeout=-1else set timeout=10fi### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###set menu_color_normal=white/blackset menu_color_highlight=black/white### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" { recordfail=1 if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi set quiet=1 insmod ext2 set root=(hd0,1) search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set efb58ece-47d7-4d46-9368-9f071d952288 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=efb58ece-47d7-4d46-9368-9f071d952288 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic}

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup. GRUB 2... read all about it --> http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-2.en.html ... or don't.

[mhbell]

Yup. GRUB 2... read all about it --> http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-2.en.html ... or don't.

I figured it was something like that. Guess I will stick with my 3rd party boot manager and start using a Boot partition because of the size.Mel

[Bruno]

Yep Grub-2 looks like a whole lot of hassle . . . I started reading http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/mu.../multiboot.html but gave up after 2 minutes. I hope they develop a tool that will make the changes for you if you want to add more distros to the boot menu. Else I will be going back to using my good old favourite Lilo. Bruno

[Urmas]

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152790

[mhbell]

Yep Grub-2 looks like a whole lot of hassle . . . I started reading http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/mu.../multiboot.html but gave up after 2 minutes. I hope they develop a tool that will make the changes for you if you want to add more distros to the boot menu. Else I will be going back to using my good old favourite Lilo. Bruno

From what I read, I don't know if you could use Lilo with a ext4 FS. Grub 2 has all of the modules in the boot folder. Also Grub one won't work with ext4 FS directly. There are work arounds of course, but are a pain.Note for those who are upgrading to 9.10 from 9.04It should pointed out that systems upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 from an earlier release will not have their bootloaders replaced, because that would be an inherently risky operation. Only fresh installs of Karmic will use GRUB 2. However, the ambitious can upgrade their bootloaders manually following these instructions.Mel Edited November 1, 2009 by mhbell

[sunrat]

I had to investigate. The best write-up I found was the sidux wiki, particularly grub2 config files.

For fast edits, grub2 has the /etc/default/grub file.If you run command update-grub (with root powers)....it looks at this file first....to embed changes into the scripts found at /etc/grub.d/....and then changes /boot/grub/grub.cfgSome people may never change the master file? Instead they edit direct at /boot/grub/grub.cfg. But then they are unable to run update-grub and so miss seeing the internal checks that the update script can perform. YMMV. If they were to run update-grub they lose their changes. But that fact can be used in a rescue situation.If you choose to edit just the grub.cfg.....and when you get an error on reboot...use commands to get into Linux. Then edit the cfg file or run update-grub to overwrite the bad grub.cfg.The other option is to ignore the master level file, assuming its ok. And edit the scripts in /etc/grub.d which is of course the preferred way when more fancy stuff is being attempted than just turning on or off the terminal (console) menu to get a chance to have a fancy menu.Summary of options when you change any config fileIf you only change the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file you can NOT run update-grub.If you edit any file from /etc/default/grub or from /etc/grub.d/(any file) you MUST RUN with root powers update-grub for changes to be effected.e

Chainloading appears to be similar to Grub legacy, and can be used to boot any OS.

[Bruno]

Right, I like the chainloading options in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg . . .that is good news There only thing to really remember is that it counts the partitions differently from grub1 ( hd0,2 will be hd0,3 ) Bruno

[Urmas]

Herman: http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20.html

[mhbell]

Right, I like the chainloading options in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg . . .that is good news There only thing to really remember is that it counts the partitions differently from grub1 ( hd0,2 will be hd0,3 ) Bruno

Hopefully this will help someone else who wants to dual or triple boot using grub2. This is what I did. Ubuntu 9.04 is on hd0 and 9.10 is on hd1. I put grub2 in the mbr of hd0 and modified the legacy menu.lst of 9.04 and put legacy grub in its root partition. then I booted up to 9.10 and at a terminal types "sudo update-grub" without the quotes. it then searched all hard drives and found all of the other OS's reconfigured grub.cfg. So all is well. I now have to read more and try to figure out how to make 9.04 the default for boot purposes.Mel

[mhbell]

Herman: http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20.html

Excellent source Urmas. After reading more from that link I am ready to change my legacy grub in 9.04 to grub2. I'll make a grub rescue CD first.Thanks for the link info.Mel

[Urmas]

You know the drill... please report back to HQ immediately after the smoke has cleared.

[mhbell]

You know the drill... please report back to HQ immediately after the smoke has cleared.

Well I did manage to change the default to Ubuntu 9.04 instead of Ubuntu 9.10. It was very easy from the command line.code:

sudo grub-set-default 4sudo update-grub

The 4 is the number of Ubuntu 9.04 in the grub menu at boot up. Another words Ubuntu is the number 5 item displayed in the boot menu. the numbering starts at 0 zero so counting the first item as 0 Ubuntu in my boot menu is the 5th item but number 4 on the list. Hope I have not confused anyone. I havn't found a grub 2 to install yet in 9.04.Mel Edited November 1, 2009 by mhbell

[Elf Wizard]

There is a good tutorial for grub2 here.Grub2 is available for installation at Ubuntu, since dapper.I installed it and seems to work without problems. I also liked its splashimages!

[mhbell]

Well after much reading, trial and error and a little sweating I finally managed to install grub2 in my Ubuntu 9.04 what a hassle. then I made some changes to the default and downloaded some splash screens and edited several different menus and then ran the following command to update grub config. "sudo update-grub" I would reboot and nothing changed even though it found 9.10 on the second hard drive and the splash screen that I wanted, when I booted up they were not there. Just the same old blue and white boot menu with just the main OS showing. I kept working on it trying to find out why the changes did not work. I was at my wits end and pulling my hair out when a few minutes ago I started looking at the "grub.cfg" which you are not supposed to edit. I found next to it a file called "grub.cfg.new" I opened that file and there was all of my changes. I renamed the "grub.cfg" to "grub.cfg.old" and renamed The new grub file to "grub.cfg" crossed my fingers and rebooted. Success I don't know why when I ran "sudo update-grub" that it would not change the "grub.cfg" file. I did not find this in any of the hundreds of pages of documents, emails and forums and trouble shooting that I did. my next adventure will be to put the things that I want to keep permanent into the chain loader so that everytime there is a change and or "sudo update-grub" is run it won't change what I want to keep.got my fingers crossed.Mel

[BillD]

Bruno said:

Yep Grub-2 looks like a whole lot of hassle . . . I started reading http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/mu.../multiboot.html but gave up after 2 minutes. I hope they develop a tool that will make the changes for you if you want to add more distros to the boot menu.Else I will be going back to using my good old favourite Lilo.

I have not tried installing Karmic, but is there an option to still use Lilo when you install Karmic, or is there some other way choose to install lilo on a distro?My head is spinning after reading all the posts and links about Grub2 . . .Thank you,Bill Edited November 5, 2009 by BillD

[mhbell]

Bruno said:I have not tried installing Karmic, but is there an option to still use Lilo when you install Karmic, or is there some other way choose to install lilo on a distro?My head is spinning after reading all the posts and links about Grub2 . . .Thank you,Bill

If there is I am not aware of it during a install. Perhaps using the alternate CD you could do it. Another way might be to install it but dont overwrite the mbr put it in the root leaving Lilo intact and adding ubuntu to your Lilo conf Be aware there are problems such as this

As far as I know LiLo hasn't been updated to cope with the UUID numbers we have in our new /etc/fstab files these days, that's why we need to revert our fstab line for Ubuntu to the old style to use LiLo.

I only use Grub and once you learn grub especially the new grub2 it is far superior to Lilo IMHO especially since it will auto detect other OS's and put them in the Grub.cfg automatically.Mel

[lewmur]

Bruno said:I have not tried installing Karmic, but is there an option to still use Lilo when you install Karmic, or is there some other way choose to install lilo on a distro?My head is spinning after reading all the posts and links about Grub2 . . .Thank you,Bill

If he sticks with ext3 for the Karmic partition, he can use Lilo. But if he chooses ext4 then he has to use grub2. If he has Lilo booting another distro, he can choose to install grub to the ext4 partition instead of the MBR and then chain to grub2 to boot Karmix. Edited November 5, 2009 by lewmur