On Mar 12, 2014, at 7:06 AM, Timothy Murphy <gayleard@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Chris Murphy wrote: > >>> I want to upgrade Windows XP on my laptop to Windows 7, >>> but I'd like to be sure that I can get back to Linux afterwards. >>> (I'm sure Windows installation will over-write the MBR.) > >> Which version of Fedora? > > I'm running Fedora-20/KDE. > >>> One thing I tried without success in the past >>> was to specify a USB stick when running grub2-install. > >> Sure, and then at the grub prompt you can use ls to find the designation >> for the drive and partition, then use configfile >> (hdx,msdosy)/grub2/grub.cfg which will produce the grub menu and let you >> boot. Then you can reinstall grub to the hard drive once booted. > > Last time I tried this I didn't get a grub prompt > when re-starting the machine with the USB stick in. > > Is that what you are suggesting? > As far as I could see, the MBR written on the USB stick > did not contain the required information to start the grub2 loader. > What grub2-install command, precisely, did (or would) you give? For this you use grub-mkrescue. http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Invoking-grub_002dmkrescue That's why it's easier to use a livecd, or even easier is use the rescue boot option on DVD or netinstall media, which causes anaconda to find your installation, and properly mount everything at /mnt/sysimage so that all you have to do is chroot it, and then reinstall grub. chroot /mnt/sysimage grub2-install /dev/sdX grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg >> Or you can just do this from Live Desktop written to a USB stick. > > I did try installing Fedora KDE Live CD on the stick - > is that what you are suggesting? - > but I found the grub version that ran on the stick (presumably grub2) > was not the best - > it didn't seem possible to use it interactively. GRUB2 doesn't have an interactive mode when you're booted in linux, it has a set of script commands that run stand alone: e.g. grub2-install, grub2-mkconfig. > > Possibly my experience is due to my ignorance of grub2 usage. > But I also tried using a CentOS Live USB stick, > and had no better luck. Well that's a completely different beast because it uses GRUB legacy, there are more differences than similarities between the two GRUBs. GRUB2 is a rewrite. GRUB legacy is unmaintained by upstream for something like 8 years. They don't even provide help for it on their mailing list anymore. Chris Murphy -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Fedora Code of Conduct: http://fedoraproject.org/code-of-conduct Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
