On Friday, October 28, 2011 01:03:05 PM, John Mort wrote:
> Well, I do dual boot with Ubuntu and XP. XP is really only for gaming, but
> I did get my hands on a copy of Win7 that's been collecting dust. Since
> I'm on ext3, it seems like this would be a good opportunity to backup and
> then wipe the machine completely, then load up Win7 and follow that with a
> fresh Ubuntu install. I imagine that would avoid any grub2 issues?
grub2 shouldn't be a problem in that case in terms of that kind of multi-boot;
the situation where grub2 [used to be | might still occasionally be]
problematic is when you're /chainloading/ multiple copies of grub, such as
something like this:
Grub2
\-> Windows
\-> Fedora
\-> Grub2 -> Ubuntu
\-> Grub2 -> Mandriva
In the above setup, Grub2 for Ubuntu or other Linux distros "under" Fedora are
/chainloaded/ and thus Grub2 is embedded into the filesystems that Ubuntu and
Mandriva are using, and that's where Grub2 can sometimes have issues. Booting
Windows or Fedora in the diagram above is "normal" and does NOT require
chainloading to another copy of Grub2.
The only other thing I'll mention is that if you go to install Win 7 that it
WILL blow away the MBR in the process and thus remove Grub2 from the MBR. If
you want to replace XP with Win 7 it would be easier to do that FIRST and then
to reinstall Ubuntu, such that Grbu2 will be installed after Windows. The
other next-best option is to get a grub2 rescue CD (yes such a thing exists:
in Debian/Ubuntu the package with the ISO in it is called grub-rescue-pc) and
then learn how to deal with the grub2 command line in order to reinstall it
into the MBR after it's been blown away. I believe I've had that happen after
having to "rescue" Windows.
-- Chris
--
Chris Knadle
[email protected]
_______________________________________________
Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org
http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug
Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium
Nov 2 - POV-Ray and The Relativity Train
Dec 7 - An Intro to Chef
Jan 4 - Recovering the Brownfield: Revitalizing Open Source Projects
