- This topic has 21 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Aug 16-5:40 pm by olsztyn.
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Posts
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seaken64
@olsztyn,
I think the grub team does not really focus on multi-booting. They leave that to others to solve. On a single boot system grub is fine, or with one Linux and Windows. But beyond that it’s pretty messy.
To be fair, the routines do work fine most of the time. I rarely have had a distro not be found and put on the menu as long as I am careful to install grub to the PBR. And we can edit the menu and make it just the way we want. And this is fine for a static computer that doesn’t change. We do it once and it’s done.
The problems come in when we do lots of experimenting and installs, over and over. Grub does not handle that well and there is no easy way to manage it yourself. That’s why some user’s like Grub Customizer or some other boot loader that is easier to manage. I used to use Lilo exclusively. I just gave up and surrendered to the crowd who has decided that grub is the bootloader for Linux now.
Seaken64
Brian Masinick
@Brian,
I used to edit the grub.cfg file and change the titles. After my edit the boot menu was just what I wanted. Then when grub is updated, or when installing a new distro and re-running the grub boot repair or update-grub, my nicely edited menu was gone and I was back to the default list. I decided to stop trying to edit the menu and just write it all down by hand or keep an updated text file. It’s just easier.
I have noticed that if I use the 40(x)_custom files and add menu entries they stay as I wrote them in the 40_custom files. So, presumably, one could just make all the entries in the 40_custom files and stop all the other files from running.
Seaken64
@Seaken64: Either approach works. I used to enjoy GRUB Legacy; I could more easily chainload any distribution, and I could set up or modify any entry easily.
You can still do such things with GRUB 2, but it’s far more complicated and sometimes hardly worth it.Both @BobC and @olsztyn have useful alternatives too. It ultimately is a matter of comfort, convenience, and personal preference.
(It STILL is a PAIN, compared to “old” methods)!--
Brian MasinickBobC
The /etc/boot/grub/custom.cfg file doesn’t normally get overwritten. I have made a copy on another drive when I use it though. It doesn’t show up until the end though, so if there are many partitions, it gets lost off the bottom, so it’s not optimal.
I wonder if any other programs out there read/parse the grub.cfg file. If not, then my modification or something a bit more refined, like Label:xxxxxxxxxxx or Label:NotLabeled (would that be the best way to say that?) would be much nicer to see than no hints.
As far as what shows up for the distro/version, I think the Dev’s of any particular Distro decide what they want to appear, within the limits of what grub will accept.
olsztyn
(It STILL is a PAIN, compared to “old” methods)!
Thank you! I happen to share the same opinion…
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters
christophe
FWIW….
If you installed your OSes to the PBR/VBR, you could install extlinux on the MBR (legacy boot only, of course), then chainload to each PBR/VBR to actually boot the OS. You would type whatever you wanted (like the old grub-legacy) as the boot screen label.
(On a grub-pc upgrade, where it reinstalls grub, grub complains a little (gives a warning message) about putting grub on the PBR being “unreliable” — but I’ve never had problems.)
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
If you installed your OSes to the PBR/VBR, you could install extlinux on the MBR (legacy boot only, of course), then chainload to each PBR/VBR to actually boot the OS. You would type whatever you wanted (like the old grub-legacy) as the boot screen label.
Yes, indeed. This would be much cleaner way than Grub2.
However, expanding the post originator’s objective, how can we dynamically build a boot menu of partition/systems existing on the hard drive, along with their specific label information? Currently antiX can do it. Can such bootloader search tools be added to Extlinux process?
Just to add, my understanding is (perhaps incorrect) that UEFI boot process is just like Extlinux/syslinux for MBR…Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters
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