[Mageia-discuss] can bootable partitions be detected during installation?

[blind Pete]

Wolfgang Bornath wrote:

> 2012/4/29 blind Pete <0123peter-
Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>:
>> Hi,
>>
>> During a test installation of M2b3 some other installations are
>> detected and get listed in the Grub menu, but others don't.
>> For example, Ubuntu is ignored.  That uses Grub2 so it would be
>> a bit much to expect Grub to understand it, BUT Ubuntu's Grub2
>> is installed on Unbutu's root partition.
>>
>> Can partitions with boot loaders on them be detected and listed
>> in Grub's menu as something to be chained?  i.e. Install M2b3
>> and get Grub installed to the mbr.  Then on booting, Grub could
>> present a menu that includes all of the standard M2b3 options,
>> any other kernels that were found (not the Ubuntu kernels because
>> they are under Grub2 and too hard) and an entry for the Ubuntu
>> partition.  The partition is LABELed "Ubuntu".  If "Ubuntu" were
>> selected from the M2b3 mbr Grub menu, then the Grub2 on the Ubuntu
>> root partition could be chained (and then an Ubuntu kernel).
>>
>> Is this do-able?
> 
> Yes. That is the way I install all distributions.

I meant, is it possible for the installer to do it *automatically* 
during installation?   

Have I missed an installation option?  Should this be a feature 
request - or a bug report?  M2b3 "lost" my Ubuntu installation.  
It was a quick and easy thing for me to recover from, but it could 
torment a newbie.  

> 1. Install a minimal small distribution which uses grub, without X.
> The only purpose is to put its grub into the MBR and serve as the
> "steering center".

Typically, I end up with Grub or Grub2 on each root partition and 
LiLo on the mbr.  

> 2. Install all other distributions with putting their bootloader into
> their respective root partition
> 
> 3. Enter the installations into the menu.lst of the steering center's 
grub
> with
> 
> title <distributiion name>
> root (hd0,4)
> chainloader +

Can we get this automated?  

Can a bootable partition be detected?  

Should this entry be as well as, or instead of, the existing entries? 
My feeling is that everything should be included and the user 
can then delete what is not wanted.  

> Here the bootloader of the distribution to start lies in /dev/sda5
> 
> The advantage of this way is not only that you can install
> distributions with different bootloaders. Whenever you install a new
> kernel in any of these distributions you have to do nothing extra
> because the new kernel is set in the distribution's bootloader, not in
> the master boot loader.

Agreed.  

-- 
blind Pete
Sig goes here...