Talk:GNU GRUB/Archive 1

GPT disklabels

I think that one very important subject concerning GRUB is missing: The GPT disklabel issue. Which versions of GRUB support it, which not, and how can someone work arround it (e.g. with a patched version of legacy, which exists!). GPT is THE issue our days, since disksizes above 2TB are nothing exotic anymore, thanks to RAID and cheap disks with 500GB-2TB each. It would be great if somebody would add information about this issue to this GRUB lemma. Good link for first infos to start with: http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/01/26/gpt-disklabel-support-guid-partition-table/ --77.49.106.194 (talk) 11:07, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

uninstall

Could we include a section on removal of grub or setting the options to just if you no longer desire a multiple bootloader with menus? There is an excellent page for linux here: http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p18.htm Brallan 15:13, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

stage 1.5

what exactly is this for? Plugwash 03:00, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

It is a program which can allow you to install many operating systems and gives you a user friendly menu from which you can choose which OS you want to load up. --82.21.18.117 00:09, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

A comparason with LILO would be nice

Comparison Table Needed

We need a summary table that compares the most important features of each available boot manager. The traditional ones just manage hard drives. But now we want universal swiss army knives that can fully manage hard drives, CD/DVD drives, and all kinds of USB devices, both booting from any of them and booting to any of them, either automatically or via manual menu selection (regardless of BIOS support).

Any honest comparision needs to include the incredible complexity that is GRUB. I laughed when I read that GRUB was replacing LILO because I've wasted more time trying to make GRUB work (and it works on zero computers around here) than I've ever spent configuring LILO.

GRUB CD DVD USB compatibilities

What abilities do various versions of GRUB have to boot to/from CD/DVD? What abilities do various versions of GRUB have to boot to/from various USB devices? Examples/links?

Technical cleanup

Could someone have a go at turning those feature lists into sentences and paragraphs? Even adding full stops would be a good start. Chris Cunningham 18:39, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Please do not turn these lists into bloat! If you want to add useful commentary, fine, but these lists seem very efficient, clean, and accessible.69.87.199.195 18:59, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

This is an encyclopedia, not a catalogue. Chris Cunningham 19:36, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

External links

WP:EL discourages stacks of resource extlinks. I don't see why this should be suspended here. Chris Cunningham 12:50, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

m:When should I link externally has some slightly firmer wording. I'm opposed to every two-bit port or HOWTO on the Internet making it into article. Wikipedia is not an OS cookbook nor a software link repository. Please discuss this before reverting. Chris Cunningham 16:37, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

What the hell. There is nothing wrong with links to tutorials on using GRUB.

• Man pages are not enough
• These tutorials are much more helpful for newcomers than anything else online
• The material in them is not covered in the article, either because it hasn't been written yet or because it's too detailed to be in an article

WP:EL#What_should_be_linked_to clearly says that they are appropriate:

1. Sites that contain neutral and accurate material not already in the article. Ideally this content should be integrated into the Wikipedia article, then the link would remain as a reference, but in some cases this is not possible for copyright reasons or because the site has a level of detail which is inappropriate for the Wikipedia article.
2. Sites with other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article, such as professional athlete statistics, screen credits, interviews, or online textbooks. — Omegatron 16:49, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't apply to the links you're adding. Prescriptive articles are not "neutral", nor are instruction websites useful as a source of information like the sources given in number 2. Chris Cunningham 13:38, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Your objections make no sense (how can a "how-to" website be biased?), and are irrelevant anyway. Please read Wikipedia:External links and Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines#The differences between policies, guidelines, essays, etc.. — Omegatron 14:38, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I haven't reviewed the links in question, but perhaps if the external links section is too long, they could be put on a page on GRUB's own wiki with a link added to that? —Pengo ^{talk · contribs} 15:20, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

It's one link. To a tutorial. It's not affecting anything. I don't see why anyone would be so obssessed with removing a helpful link. There are much much much more important things to do. There are many External links sections that are much larger, and completely valid. — Omegatron 15:42, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Whatever. I'm tired of having lame edit wars about external links. In the time that you've spent reverting tutorial links I've rewritten most of the article so that it isn't unreadable, so I can take lectures about there being "much more important things to do" from other people, thanks. As for the extlinks, I have faith that they'll be removed eventually. Chris Cunningham 07:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Questions about article content

Hello, I don't get this one straight: There is no reference for that. "GRUB can be used with a variety of different user interfaces. Most Linux distributions take advantage of GRUB's support for a graphical interface to provide a customized boot menu with a background image, and occasionally mouse support. GRUB's text interface can be set to use a serial link to provide a remote terminal boot loader access." Do anyone has reference which people made successes of having mouse-supported grub or anyone who made success on adding animations or graphical interface? (I asked this for this article's betterness and for my self since if it is possible, I would like to add mouse support to grub and graphic interface.)--Yes24 14:57, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

The graphical boot menu with background image used by most recent Linux distributions' installation disks is provided by a set of patches against GRUB 0.9x (now known as GRUB Legacy). GRUB itself does not have graphics support. The actively developed version of GRUB is called GRUB 2, and though it is not fully complete yet, it is getting there rapidly.

I am working on complete graphical menu support for GRUB 2 as part of the Google Summer of Code 2008. It will support some animation features, as well as customizable theme support. After the Summer of Code is complete, we just need USB support in GRUB (another student is working on that), and then adding mouse support should be straightforward. I welcome suggestions for improvements to the graphical menu. Colinb (talk) 14:10, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

how do i shot web

...with XP and ubuntu? need something very very easy to follow. --AlexOvShaolin 03:05, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Comments: supported systems, redundancy, menu.lst

1. I'm inferring from the article that the current version of GRUB being discussed is for PC-compatible x86 systems only. If someone knows this to be true, can they add it to the article, presumably in the lead?

2. There are redundant sections on removable media; if no one else gets to it first, I'll come back and address this eventually.

3. The early part of the article talks about the configuration file being called "menu.lst", but later in the article it states this is not true of all OS releases. Maybe someone with more expertise on the topic can reconcile this?--NapoliRoma 21:19, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Ncurses

There would be a ncurses Grub version, so it could be used within Windows (i.e to install to a USB keydrive to boot Linux). --Mac (talk) 14:21, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Which multiboot standard?

In the section "Boot process", it says "operating systems such as Windows that do not support the Multiboot standard". Is that the "multiboot specification" standard? I am not sure enough to make the fix myself. 84.238.87.114 (talk) 10:05, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Boot Process

Having just wrestled with grub I think this section could do with expanding to include the case where grub code is stored at the beginning of a partition rather than the MBR. It appears to me that the MBR needs some code telling the loader to look at the active partition if there is one. I am not expert enough to know if this MBR code has to be grub code or if it could be something else altogether eg windows based from say fdisk \mbr. However it would appear that the important stage code can be loaded at the beginning of an active partition as well as in the MBR. It would be very useful to know exactly what is required particularly when trying to recover from corrupt disk areas and for building multiboot machines with many different OSes. Hopefully there is someone with the detailed knowledge to do this, as all the Googling I did only gave the simple details and not the most general. 213.152.38.62 (talk) 13:03, 12 November 2008 (UTC)