Node:Installing GRUB natively, Next:, Previous:Creating a GRUB boot floppy, Up:Installation


Installing GRUB natively

Caution: Installing GRUB's stage1 in this manner will erase the normal boot-sector used by an OS.

GRUB can currently boot GNU Mach, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD directly, so using it on a boot sector should be okay. But generally, it would be a good idea to back up the first sector of the partition on which you are installing GRUB's stage1. This isn't as important if you are installing GRUB on the first sector of a hard disk, since it's easy to reinitialize it (e.g. by running FDISK /MBR from DOS).

If you decide to install GRUB in the native environment, which is definitely desirable, you'll need to create the GRUB boot disk, and reboot your computer with it. Otherwise, see Installing GRUB using grub-install, for more details.

Once started, GRUB will show the command-line interface (see Command-line interface). First, set the GRUB's root device1 to the boot directory, like this: 

grub> root (hd0,0)

If you are not sure which partition actually holds these files, use the command find (see find), like this: 

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

This will search for the file name /boot/grub/stage1 and show the devices which contain the file.

Once you've set the root device correctly, run the command setup (see setup): 

grub> setup (hd0)

This command will install GRUB on the MBR in the first drive. If you want to install GRUB into the boot sector of a partition instead of the MBR, specify a partition into which you want to install GRUB: 

grub> setup (hd0,0)

If you install GRUB into a partition or a drive other than the first one, you must chain-load GRUB from another boot loader. Refer to the manual for the boot loader to know how to chain-load GRUB.

Now you can boot GRUB without a GRUB floppy. See the chapter Booting to find out how to boot your operating systems from GRUB.

Footnotes

  1. Note that GRUB's root device doesn't necessarily mean your OS's root partition; if you need to specify a root partition for your OS, add the argument into the command kernel.