Just installed openSuSE, but no grub offered. Where are my other OS's???
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I am seriously considering just backing up my FAT (somehow...?) and just completely reformatting and repartitioning the entire HDD, less the 100GB Kubuntu... Opinions? Stay away from openSuSE?
Grub or Grub2, or LILO?
Coreboot (LinuxBIOS) or standard BIOS?
And, I always format to ext4 for all OS. Is this a good choice for me?
Well, this looks good since all Systems are 64bit, you'll actually need only one installation of Grub. Question: which of the distributions has a Grub0.97 or so, a version of Grub with a menu.lst file?
Here as an example my menu.lst
Code:
markus@samsung:~/Programmierung/ruby$ cat /usr/local/gentoo/boot/grub/menu.lst
# This is a sample grub.conf for use with Genkernel, per the Gentoo handbook
# http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10#doc_chap2
# If you are not using Genkernel and you need help creating this file, you
# should consult the handbook. Alternatively, consult the grub.conf.sample that
# is included with the Grub documentation.
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
# (0) Gentoo 64bit
title Gentoo
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/linux-2.6.34-gentoo-r12
# (1) Slackware64-current
title Slackware64
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
boot
# (3) Slackware-13.1 32bit
title Slackware-13.1
rootnoverify (hd0,8)
chainloader +1
boot
# (4) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
the entries with "chainloader" are those systems which have their own bootloader installed on their partition, you don't need this. You'll only have to configure the kernels of you distributions.
Why do you want to reinstall everything? you may reformat only the partition with the FAT32 filesystem.
I'd recommend the old version of Grub, I use it on systems where I have several distributions installed, lilo is less flexible. Otherwise lilo is very reliable.
About ext3 or ext4, I would use the filesystem which the distribution uses as default. If they ship with ext3, they may have there reasons.
So, installing grub legacy will fix this? Or, installing LILO will fix this? So LILO is less flexible, but would that make a difference to me. I AM still very noobish!
There is nothing on the other OSs that I can not live without. Only FAT32 has important files, and I can access that from Kubuntu and drag those files into here (into Kubuntu), then overhaul the rest of the HDD.
Any opinion on this markush? Or should I try to fix ?
Last edited by Bhakta Neal; 12-21-2010 at 09:48 AM.
Reason: fixed a typo
Well, if you decide to fix your system in order to boot every installed distribution, I'd recommend Grub legacy, take my example in post #47 as a base for your own menu.lst file and read some documentation about Grub.
The advantage of this solution is that you only need one Grub installation. With Lilo you would have on lilo for /dev/sda but for every distribution you'll have to install lilo (or grub) in the MBR of partition, this is far less flexible.
Further I'd recommend: you have a running system yet. Take some time to gather information and decide afterwards what to do. You know, fixing your issue will teach you lots of Linux, and your not far away from the solution. Otherwise when reinstalling everything, you'll learn less new things.
Ok nice answer, markush. Thank you for the encouragement. I do think that since this is not an emergency, running Gparted would be cheating, and I'd learn nothing.
Can you please direct me to some literature on grub (for dummies like me!)?
The advantage of this solution is that you only need one Grub installation. With Lilo you would have on lilo for /dev/sda but for every distribution you'll have to install lilo (or grub) in the MBR of partition, this is far less flexible.
That's not accurate. You have to mount the partitions you want lilo to boot before editing lilo.conf and direct it to the mount points. Then you run lilo. It works and it's simple.
Grub legacy is nice too. Simple and you don't have to rerun it all the time you add another OS. I just hate the script-mess that is the new grub.
That's not accurate. You have to mount the partitions you want lilo to boot before editing lilo.conf and direct it to the mount points. Then you run lilo. It works and it's simple.
Well, I've done this until some years ago I had issues with this configuration. So I switched to Grub.
Quote:
Grub legacy is nice too. Simple and you don't have to rerun it all the time you add another OS. I just hate the script-mess that is the new grub
both is true. Grub is more convenient than Lilo, but the lilo.conf file is easier to maintain.
Since I often install new systems I decided pro Grub. One may not overlook that most distributions come with Grub as the default.
A problem may occure because Grub legacy is no longer maintained and I had problems with Grub 2, so switched to Lilo on parts of my system.
@Bhakta Neal: good luck, nice to read that I could help you!
When I install grub legacy, and assuming I want to keep things simple and that I will never ever install "broken-Windows", then I will want to install GRUB in the MBR??? Is the MBR generally where I should put Grub anyway?
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