[Mageia-discuss] Enhance GRUB

[Olav Dahlum]

On 13/12/11 00:01, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
> 2011/12/12 JA Magallon <jamagallon at ono.com>:
>> On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:39:51 -0500
>> Frank Griffin <ftg at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/12/2011 04:24 PM, Kristoffer Grundström wrote:
>>>> 2011-12-12 22:22, Florian Hubold skrev:
>>>>> Am 12.12.2011 22:15, schrieb Kristoffer Grundström:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How to make it more easier to know which kernel belongs to which
>>>>>> distro&
>>>>>> version if you don't focus on the mga1 or mga2-part in the kernel-name?
>>>>>>
>>>>> That's why you can use titles as you want, to easier distinguish those.
>>>> And how is a newbie supposed to see that he/she can do so?
>>>>
>>> Newbies, for the most part, don't often run multiple distros on the same
>>> machine, and even less often have to resort to booting old kernels.
>>> When Mageia updates a kernel, it creates new entries with the full
>>> kernel name for the version it is replacing, but alters the existing
>>> entry for the replaced kernel in place.  So, as the initial install gave
>>> you a "Mageia" title entry for the installed system, this will always be
>>> set to the last installed kernel.  Also, Windows partitions are
>>> identified as such in the Mageia-generated titles.
>>>
>>
>> Side note... a 'problem' I always have to do by hand and EasyBCD...
>> Would it be feasible, when installer detects there is a windows partition,
>> add the Linux entry to the windows boot menu ?
>> Probably XP is easy, boot.ini is text, but for Win7 you must edit the
>> BCD programatically. Are there linux tools to do that ?
> 
> Is there a special reason you need the Windows bootloader? Normally
> you let the Linux bootloader do the work, the installer detects all
> Windows installations and inserts the proper entries in the menu.lst -
> you can also set the boot default to Windows very easy (if you want).
> 

The point would be how the Windows installer handles other operating
systems except itself, and the fact that it will overwrite GRUB with
its own boot loader, rendering other systems non existent from a
boot menu. There's no easy fix to this issue, and editing from
a system you can't even boot into from a cold boot, is not an
feasible option.

Some GRUB magic can however be applied, fooling Windows into thinking
its on the first drive, but that only really works after installing it
as far as I know.

– Olav