GRUB2

[ss]

Thankyou.
I only wanted to boot from USB and Plop made this possible on my laptop, bios doesn't support USB boot.
I dual boot using Ubuntu 11.04 on sda2 and Mint 10 on sda6 (both use GRUB2). I had to use - Boot with Grub 2 without hard disk install which was successful.

I further want to know if hard disk install using GRUB2 is possible?
I want to be able to use plop even if I reinstall operating system on sda2 ( plpbt.bin is in sda2).
Am I right in thinking that if Plop Boot Manager is installed on the hard disk then overwriting Grub won't delete Plop Boot Manager and it will still be present on the hard disk? 
If so, then how can I install it on Hard Disk in case of GRUB2?

[Dan]

You could install grub2 on sda2, and then use plop to boot from sda2. This is a little fragile because core.img is located in the filesystem rather than a fixed location (sector 1), but it would work.

[Elmar]

when you are not an expert, then i suggest to add the plop boot manager to the grub2 menu.

I further want to know if hard disk install using GRUB2 is possible?

yes, when grub2 is installed to sda2

I want to be able to use plop even if I reinstall operating system on sda2 ( plpbt.bin is in sda2).

i assume, you mean, when during the install something goes wrong, then you are not able to boot again from usb. what do you have on sda1? you can copy plpbt.bin to that partition and in emergency case run it from there with the grub command line (when the command line still works). but thats for experts.

Am I right in thinking that if Plop Boot Manager is installed on the hard disk then overwriting Grub won't delete Plop Boot Manager and it will still be present on the hard disk?

when grub is installed to sda (=mbr) then the plop boot manager is still on the hard disk, but will not start until you recreate the plop boot manager loading routine in the mbr with the intall program. but this will remove grub, so you have to be sure that grub is on sda2 before you do that. 


best regards
elmar

[ss]

Hi Elmar, I want to run rescue tools (like Rescatux) from USB in case I happen to lose GRUB.
At present I am able to boot from USB through GRUB2 menu and if the Grub is lost then USB boot will not happen.
The DVD drive doesn't run well and I don't want to depend on a failing DVD drive for this purpose. I only use DVD drive for installing operating systems and running rescue tools. I rarely use it otherwise.
In short I want to use Plop manager to boot USB even if GRUB fails.

sda1 contains a hidden Sony Vaio Recovery Partition for XP. I can delete that partiton if this serves the purpose.
So, is it possible for you to brief the procedure or steps that are to performed  (hard disk install when Grub 2 is present)?

[Elmar]

at first try it by yourself. look at the grub2 docu. how to install to the boot sector. when you did not get it to work, then i will help you.

regards
elmar

[ss]

There were straightforward notes on Grub for hard disk install of Plop manager but not on Grub2. So I was confused & hesitant. I can't manage much on my own in Linux.
When you told me to go ahead and you will help in case of need then I compared notes on hard disk install in grub case and non hard disk install in grub & grub2 case and did the necessary changes.
Hard disk install went fine but the problem was that I lost Grub2 bootloader in the process as it was installed on sda & not on sda2. Then I recovered Grub but lost Plop Manager. Then googled and found a way to force install grub 2 to sda2. Then again I installed Plop Manager successfully.
Now  both Plop & Grub2 work correctly.
Thanks for this wonderful software.
I need a few tips. I have unhidden sda1 and fomatted it as FAT32. Its 5 or 6 GB in size. I want to reinstall ubuntu now as I want to rearrange partitions. Is there any use in keeping separate 5gb sda1 or should I create a 15 gb sda1 and install ubuntu on it. Any idea if I can install Grub2  on sda1 during the original install or I will have to force install it to sda1 later on.
I cant thankyou enough for making the usb work for me as if it was running from BIOS, I get to choose the boot sequence
as soon as I power the system before the Grub loads. Excellent.

[Elmar]

I need a few tips. I have unhidden sda1 and fomatted it as FAT32. Its 5 or 6 GB in size. I want to reinstall ubuntu now as I want to rearrange partitions. Is there any use in keeping separate 5gb sda1 or should I create a 15 gb sda1 and install ubuntu on it.

you can use it as swap partition, but i dont think that you need 5 or 6 gig as swap.

Any idea if I can install Grub2  on sda1 during the original install or I will have to force install it to sda1 later on.

during ubuntu install, there is a button to get additional options for grub2. you can set the destination of the grub2. i think the button is called "advanced" or similar.

best regards
elmar

[ss]

This setup works great.
I played a bit with 2-3 linux distros installing & removing them one at a time while Mint was there all the time in sda6.
Plop Boot manager is in sda while sda1( grub2), sda2(/), sda3(/home) were used for formatting & reinstalling the distros 4 times.
Every time I format these three partitions but make it a point to reinstall grub2 in sda1, Plop boot manager  is not disturbed and successfully loads grub2, no matter it was rewritten by a different distro after format and even when grub2 was copied from Mint (sda6) to sda1.
The only time there was a mess up because initially the Plop Manager was installed when grub2 was in sda2, & afterwards during installing a distro I installed Grub2 in sda1 instead of sda2 for experiment sake & on reboot after the install Plop manager failed to find the hard disk. Lesson learnt & now Grub gets a permanent sda1.
I just wanted to share my experience.