While a number of other GNU/Linux releases such as Ubuntu have moved to GRUB2, Fedora continues to use GRUB Legacy. Some preliminary investigation work on migrating to GRUB2 was done by Jeremy Katz for the Fedora Project when he worked for Red Hat. but that work seems to have completely stopped when he left Red Hat as the last update of the project page was in July 2009.
This post will show you how to migrate your Fedora 13 system to boot using GRUB2 instead of GRUB Legacy. As always, back up your system before attempting the migration. Things can and do go wrong. Even for you! Yes you! You have been warned! If you have a serious problem with a bootloader that you are unfamiliar with, you can end up spending many frustrating hours attempting to get the system to successfully boot.
There currently is a GRUB2 package (RPM) available for Fedora 13 (Goddard). As of the date of this post, the RPM version is grub2-1.98-2.fc13.*.rpm. However, it is does not replace GRUB Legacy with GRUB2. Instead it co-exists with GRUB Legacy and adds itself to the GRUB Legacy menu upon installation so you are able to select GRUB2 from the GRUB Legacy menu when booting your system. Here is the README.Fedora that is included with this package:
Using GNU GRUB 2 in Fedora ========================== Though GRUB 2 provides various feature enhancements over previous GRUB version (referred to as "GRUB", or "GRUB Legacy"), it did not reach its stability and feature completness yet, and thus is not ready to replace it for the whole user base. This package is primarily intended to encourage testing and accelerate distribution integration. It is generally safe to install the package. It is able to co-exist with existing GRUB installation and adds itself to the GRUB menu upon installation, so you'll able to select GRUB 2 from GRUB menu during the boot. Utilities --------- The GRUB 2 utilities are prefixed (or postfixed) with 'grub2': grub2-editenv grub2-mkimage grub2-mkelfimage grub2-mkrescue grub2-emu grub2-install grub2-mkdevicemap grub2-probe grub2-setup update-grub2 Documentation ------------- The GRUB 2 lacks documentation. While you are encouraged to contribute the documentation, you can use the GRUB 2 Wiki [1] as primary source of information pertaining to this development snapshot. [1] http://grub.enbug.org/ If you intend to install grub2 as your primary boot loader refer to the GRUB 2 Wiki for information on how to set it up. Support channels ---------------- If you find a bug in this package, report them to the Red Hat Bugzilla [2]. For talk about using grub2, use IRC channel #grub on freenode Network [3]. You can meet this package maintainer there (nick lkundrak). [2] http://bugzilla.redhat.com/ [3] http://freenode.net/ -- Lubomir RintelFedora Project
This is a rather strange way to add GRUB2 support to Fedora since it adds no value to the boot process. Instead it complicates it. First boot to GRUB Legacy, then select GRUB2 then boot Fedora. It does not supplant GRUB Legacy. It renames the GRUB2 scripts and binaries and thus is incompatible with other platforms that use GRUB2. In my opinion, users should simply avoid installing this package and the quicker this package is obsoleted the better.
We will build GRUB2 from the 1.98 release source tarball and replace GRUB legacy with GRUB2. After you are finished there will be no dependency on GRUB Legacy. You can download the 1.98 release from gnu.org. For the purpose of this post I am going to use /work/grub2 as the build directory.
$ mkdir -p /work/grub2 $ cd /work/grub2 $ wget ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-1.98.tar.gz $ wget ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-1.98.tar.gz.sig $ gpg --verify grub-1.98.tar.gz.sig ..... $ tar xvf grub-1.98.tar.gz $ cd grub-1.98 $ ls cinclude.m4 DISTLIST genterminallist.sh mkinstalldirs aclocal.m4 docs gentrigtables.c mmap AUTHORS efiemu genvideolist.sh NEWS autogen.sh font gettext normal autom4te.cache fs gfxmenu partmap boot gencmdlist.sh gnulib parttool bus gendistlist.sh grub-1.98.tar.gz.sig po ChangeLog genfslist.sh hello README commands genhandlerlist.sh hook script conf geninitheader.sh include stamp-h.in config.guess geninit.sh INSTALL term config.h.in genkernsyms.sh.in install-sh tests config.rpath genmk.rb io THANKS config.sub genmoddep.awk kern TODO configure genmodsrc.sh lib util configure.ac genpartmaplist.sh loader video COPYING genparttoollist.sh Makefile.in disk gensymlist.sh.in missing $ ls -d */ autom4te.cache/ disk/ gettext/ include/ mmap/ script/ boot/ docs/ gfxmenu/ io/ normal/ term/ bus/ efiemu/ gnulib/ kern/ partmap/ tests/ commands/ font/ hello/ lib/ parttool/ util/ conf/ fs/ hook/ loader/ po/ video/ $
You may be wondering why I downloaded a second file, i.e. gpg –verify grub-1.98.tar.gz.sig<./em>. Each downloadable tarball at gnu.org has an accompanying .sig file. This is a digital signature created with GnuPG. Assuming you already have a suitable public key, you can verify the signature of the downloaded tarball using gpg –verify grub-1.98.tar.gz.sig.
Next you need to configure the GRUB2 build environment using configure:
./configure --enable-efiemu=no checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking for cmp... cmp checking for bison... bison checking for gawk... (cached) gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes ......... ......... config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating gensymlist.sh config.status: creating genkernsyms.sh config.status: creating stamp-h config.status: creating config.h config.status: config.h is unchanged config.status: linking include/grub/i386 to include/grub/cpu config.status: linking include/grub/i386/pc to include/grub/machine config.status: executing depfiles commands config.status: executing po-directories commands ******************************************************* GRUB2 will be compiled with following components: Platform: i386-pc With memory debugging: No efiemu runtime: No (explicitly disabled) grub-fstest: Yes grub-mkfont: No (need freetype2 library) ******************************************************* $
Notice that I explicitly turned off EFI emulation via a configure command line option as you really do not need it. You can use configure –help to see what other options are available to customize the build.
Next build the GRUB2 binaries and modules. You can perform the build on either a 32-bit or a 64-bit system; it does not manner.
$ make gcc -Ignulib -I./gnulib -I. -I./include -I./gnulib -I./include -Wall -W -DGRUB_LIBDIR=\"/usr/local/lib/`echo grub/i386-pc | sed 's,x,x,'`\" -DLOCALEDIR=\"\" -DGRUB_MACHINE_PCBIOS=1 -DGRUB_UTIL=1 -DGRUB_KERNEL_MACHINE_LINK_ADDR=0x8200 -MD -c -o grub_mkimage-gnulib_progname.o gnulib/progname.c gcc -Iutil -I./util -I. -I./include -I./gnulib -I./include -Wall -W -DGRUB_LIBDIR=\"/usr/local/lib/`echo grub/i386-pc | sed 's,x,x,'`\" -DLOCALEDIR=\"\" -DGRUB_MACHINE_PCBIOS=1 -DGRUB_UTIL=1 -DGRUB_KERNEL_MACHINE_LINK_ADDR=0x8200 -MD -c -o grub_mkimage-util_grub_mkrawimage.o util/grub-mkrawimage.c ......... ......... /bin/mkdir -p $(dirname po/ru.mo) /usr/bin/msgfmt -c --statistics -o po/ru.mo po/ru.po 268 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 1 untranslated message. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/sv.po po/grub.pot ...................................... done. /bin/mkdir -p $(dirname po/sv.mo) /usr/bin/msgfmt -c --statistics -o po/sv.mo po/sv.po 168 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 101 untranslated messages. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/zh_CN.po po/grub.pot .............................................. done. /bin/mkdir -p $(dirname po/zh_CN.mo) /usr/bin/msgfmt -c --statistics -o po/zh_CN.mo po/zh_CN.po 268 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 1 untranslated message.
If the build is successful, you then install the build using make install.
# make install /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/ast.po po/grub.pot ....................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/ca.po po/grub.pot ............................................ done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/de.po po/grub.pot ..................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/fi.po po/grub.pot ...................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/fr.po po/grub.pot ......................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/hu.po po/grub.pot ........................................ done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/id.po po/grub.pot ....................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/it.po po/grub.pot .................................. done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/nl.po po/grub.pot ......................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/ru.po po/grub.pot ..................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/sv.po po/grub.pot ....................................... done. /usr/bin/msgmerge -U po/zh_CN.po po/grub.pot ...................................... done. /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/lib/`echo grub/i386-pc | sed 's,x,x,'` mkdir -p -- /usr/local/lib/grub/i386-pc rm -f /usr/local/lib/`echo grub/i386-pc | sed 's,x,x,'`/* /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/share/`echo grub | sed 's,x,x,'` mkdir -p -- /usr/local/share/grub /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/bin /usr/local/share/man/man1 mkdir -p -- /usr/local/bin /usr/local/share/man/man1 /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/sbin /usr/local/share/man/man8 mkdir -p -- /usr/local/sbin /usr/local/share/man/man8 /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/etc/grub.d mkdir -p -- /usr/local/etc/grub.d /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/lib/grub /bin/sh ./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/share/info
If you thought that make install actually installed GRUB2 you are mistaken. Instead this command installs the GRUB2 build system into /usr/local. You then use some of these scripts and binaries to install and configure GRUB2. make install simply populates a number of subdirectories in /usr/local.
# ls /usr/local/bin grub-bin2h grub-mkelfimage grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 grub-script-check grub-editenv grub-mkimage grub-mkrelpath grub-fstest grub-mkisofs grub-mkrescue # ls /usr/local/sbin grub-install grub-mkdevicemap grub-reboot grub-setup grub-mkconfig grub-probe grub-set-default # ls /usr/local/etc/grub.d 00_header 10_linux 30_os-prober 40_custom README #
To actually install GRUB2 on your system, the easiest way is to run the grub-install shell script which in turn calls other scripts and binaries to do the actual work. The only parameter you need to pass to grub-install is a boot device. In our case it is /dev/sda.
# cd /usr/local/sbin # ./grub-install --help Usage: grub-install [OPTION] install_device Install GRUB on your drive. -h, --help print this message and exit -v, --version print the version information and exit --modules=MODULES pre-load specified modules MODULES --root-directory=DIR install GRUB images under the directory DIR instead of the root directory --grub-setup=FILE use FILE as grub-setup --grub-mkimage=FILE use FILE as grub-mkimage --grub-mkdevicemap=FILE use FILE as grub-mkdevicemap --grub-probe=FILE use FILE as grub-probe --no-floppy do not probe any floppy drive --recheck probe a device map even if it already exists --force install even if problems are detected --disk-module=MODULE disk module to use INSTALL_DEVICE can be a GRUB device name or a system device filename. grub-install copies GRUB images into /boot/grub (or /grub on NetBSD and OpenBSD), and uses grub-setup to install grub into the boot sector. If the --root-directory option is used, then grub-install will copy images into the operating system installation rooted at that directory. Report bugs to. # ./grub-install /dev/sda Installation finished. No error reported. #
So what does grub-install actually do? Among other things, it
- Copies all the module (*.mod) files from /work/grub into /boot/grub.
- Copies all the list (*.lst) files from /work/grub into /boot/grub. Simply put, a .lst file maps an entity to a module. For example, moddep.lst contains a list of all the other modules that a particular module depends on. When a module is loaded, the dependent modules are also automatically loaded.
- Generates a core image (core.img) which contains the basic GRUB2 image, plus the filesystem driver module needed to read the filesystem which contains the GRUB2 files and possibly one or more other modules. In our case, the appropriate filesystem module is ext2.mod.
- Modifies the contents of core.img to insert specific values for the boot device and the addresses of the other blocks of the file It then copies core.img to specific sectors on the boot device. In our case, the first 0x10000 sectors (32Kb) immediately following the MBR Master Boot Record).
- Generates and write an 512-byte MBR image to the appropriate area of the boot device which includes a pointer to the first block of core.img.
Here is a listing of the files that are installed in /boot/grub:
acpi.mod dm_nv.mod gfxterm.mod msdospart.mod search_label.mod affs.mod drivemap.mod gptsync.mod multiboot2.mod search.mod afs_be.mod echo.mod grubenv multiboot.mod serial.mod afs.mod efiemu32.o gzio.mod normal.mod setjmp.mod aout.mod efiemu64.o halt.mod ntfscomp.mod setpci.mod ata.mod efiemu.mod handler.lst ntfs.mod sfs.mod ata_pthru.mod elf.mod handler.mod ohci.mod sh.mod at_keyboard.mod example_functional_test.mod hashsum.mod part_acorn.mod sleep.mod befs_be.mod ext2.mod hdparm.mod part_amiga.mod tar.mod befs.mod extcmd.mod hello.mod part_apple.mod terminal.lst biosdisk.mod fat.mod help.mod part_gpt.mod terminal.mod bitmap.mod font.mod hexdump.mod partmap.lst terminfo.mod bitmap_scale.mod fshelp.mod hfs.mod part_msdos.mod test.mod blocklist.mod fs.lst hfsplus.mod part_sun.mod tga.mod boot.img functional_test.mod iso9660.mod parttool.lst trig.mod boot.mod gcry_arcfour.mod jfs.mod parttool.mod true.mod bsd.mod gcry_blowfish.mod jpeg.mod password.mod udf.mod bufio.mod gcry_camellia.mod kernel.img password_pbkdf2.mod ufs1.mod cat.mod gcry_cast5.mod keystatus.mod pbkdf2.mod ufs2.mod cdboot.img gcry_crc.mod linux16.mod pci.mod uhci.mod chain.mod gcry_des.mod linux.mod play.mod usb_keyboard.mod charset.mod gcry_md4.mod lnxboot.img png.mod usb.mod cmp.mod gcry_md5.mod loadenv.mod probe.mod usbms.mod command.lst gcry_rfc2268.mod locale pxeboot.img usbtest.mod configfile.mod gcry_rijndael.mod loopback.mod pxecmd.mod vbeinfo.mod core.img gcry_rmd160.mod lsmmap.mod pxe.mod vbe.mod cpio.mod gcry_seed.mod ls.mod raid5rec.mod vbetest.mod cpuid.mod gcry_serpent.mod lspci.mod raid6rec.mod vga.mod crc.mod gcry_sha1.mod lvm.mod raid.mod vga_text.mod crypto.lst gcry_sha256.mod mdraid.mod read.mod video_fb.mod crypto.mod gcry_sha512.mod memdisk.mod reboot.mod video.lst datehook.mod gcry_tiger.mod memrw.mod reiserfs.mod video.mod date.mod gcry_twofish.mod minicmd.mod relocator.mod videotest.mod datetime.mod gcry_whirlpool.mod minix.mod scsi.mod xfs.mod device.map gettext.mod mmap.mod search_fs_file.mod xnu.mod diskboot.img gfxmenu.mod moddep.lst search_fs_uuid.mod xnu_uuid.mod
Now GRUB2 is nearly ready to use. The only thing missing is a working grub.cfg configuration file located in the /boot/grub/ subdirectory. You can edit the /etc/default/conf configuration file and then use /usr/local/sbin/grub-mkconfig to create /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Note some distributions, including Ubuntu, specify the use of update-grub instead of grub-mkconfig. However update-grub is simply a link to grub-mkconfig. This is the official way of doing things. I, on the other hand, find it easier just to directly edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg and skip the other steps. Why complicate things!
You can easily modify your GRUB Legacy configuration file to work with GRUB2. For example, here is a very basic menu.lst configuration file for GRUB Legacy which boots Fedora 13 from /dev/sda:
default=0 timeout=15 title Fedora (2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_ultra-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64.img
and here is the same configuration modified to work with GRUB2:
default=0 timeout=15 menuentry "Fedora 13" { root=(hd0,1) linux /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_ultra-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64.img }
As you can see the structure of a menu stanza has changed. Menu stanzas are now delineated by means of the menuitem “Name” { } syntax rather than by Python-like indenting. The keyword kernel is replaced with a new keyword linux. GRUB2 partitions start from 1 rather than 0 – hence root=(hd0,0) becomes root=(hd0,1).
If you want to display the GRUB2 menu at a higher resolution than VGA and display a background graphic, you have to modify your GRUB2 configuration file to support the higher resolution. The vbe.mod loadable module provides drivers for standard VESA BIOS Extentions 2.0 graphics. In addition you have to supply a suitable font.for the text glyphs and a background image of suitable format and resolution. For example, the following is a simple GRUB2 configuration file which uses the vbe.mod and gfxterm.mod modules to display the GRUB2 menu with a resolution of 1024 x 768 and a full screen background image (f13rockets.tga) using a unicode font.
timeout=15 default=0 if loadfont /grub/font/unicode.pf2 then set gfxmode="1024x768x32" set gfxpayload=keep insmod gfxterm insmod vbe terminal_output gfxterm terminal gfxterm insmod tga use_bg=true background_image /grub/image/f13rockets.tga fi set color_normal=yellow/black set color_highlight=blue/yellow set menu_color_normal=yellow/black set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray menuentry "Fedora 13" { root=(hd0,1) linux /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_ultra-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_ultra/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-124.fc13.x86_64.img }
I suggest you start with a very simple GRUB2 configuration file such as the first example shown above for the first reboot of your system after installing GRUB2. Once you can successfully boot your system using that configuration, then you can experiment with more complex and sophisticated configuration file. Walk before you run! The rescue mode in GRUB2 is better than that in GRUB Legacy but you will quickly run into problems if you are unfamiliar with GRUB2.
By the way, if you want GRUB2 to install the build and configuration scripts and binaries in more expected location than /usr/local, here is how I configure my GRUB2 build:
# ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-largefile --enable-efiemu=no --disable-grub-fstest
During install, the subdirectories /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/lib/grub, /usr/share/grub, /etc/default and /etc/grub. are populated with the relevant GRUB2 files.
–
This post should be enough to enable you to migrate to booting your Fedora system using GRUB2. Good luck with the migration! If you discover that I have left out any step that should be included in this post, please let me know.
getting ready to try this… I always feel like I have forgotten something just before cranking this kind of thing up.
will let you know.
adios,
@
ok… it is working now. not too much trouble. good idea to do:
rpm -qa |grep grub
then:
rpm -e grub
(the legacy grub1)
If grub1 (legacy) is installed you need to get rid of it,
that’s why Fedora does the complex work around.
It’s ok if grubby stays behind, it didn’t seem to cause any problem.
They don’t really work smoothly together if you are looking for real grub2.
In other words, you don’t get to choose grub1 or grub2 at boot.
I’m sure there is a way but not for this go round.
The first time I rebooted after the install of grub2 I had not removed grub1.
This brought up the grub1 menu and boot was ok, but that wasn’t what I was looking for.
After rpm -e grub and redo the grub-install it was a pure grub2 boot.
Thanks.
adios,
@
stupid me… the info about removing the legacy version was hinted at in the Ubuntu wiki
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2
In other words after you run the “we-do-it” scripts the wiki states:
[GRUB 2 should be fully installed, with GRUB legacy removed, and it’s configuration files backed up. GRUB legacy configuration files are located in /boot/grub and are named menu.lst*
You can confirm the version you are installing at any time with:]
grub-install -v
The trick is that they have a bunch of nice scripts to do the remembering of the details for them.
Nothing like on Fedora 13 yet.
adios,
@
Al,
You are correct. GRUB Legacy and GRUB2 do not really co-exist. You need to pick one or the other. I have moved all my GNU/Linus platforms to GRUB2 and have never looked back.
Just encountered this article and would like to try it, but I wondered if (Fedora?) specific features like automatically adding new kernels to the menu will keep working?
Good question. Yes, this is an issue. Fedora 13 knows nothing about GRUB2. The update script will try and modify grub.conf and not grub.cfg. That is why I leave a dummy grub.conf in place so that the update script can find it.
You will have to manually modify grub.cfg to add a stanza for the new kernel or modify an existing stanza to point to the new kernel.
Hi,
When I follow your steps including the ./configure part to set the /etc sysconfig directories, it still doesn’t look at the /etc/default/grub file
So the 00_header and other files in /etc/grub.d don’t get the settings that are supposed to be passed to it from /etc/default/grub file.
Any ideas why it’s not looking at that file?
I do not know whose instructions you are following but they certainly are not mine.
I recommend ignoring the files in /etc/grub.d and directly editing grub.cfg. Why do I need to edit one or more configuration files, run a script to update grub.cfg when I can directly edit grub.cfg? Makes absolutely no sense to me! What value does it add? Such technological deconstructionism ignores the past and especially the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle.
However if you wish to follow the “recommended and documented” method, depending on your particular version of GRUB2, use update-grub or grub-mkconfig to update your boot.cfg.
Yup, the GRUB2 developers change the names of scripts at a whim! Fine to change the script name; I have no problem with that. However it would be better practice to link the old script to the new script with a suitable advisory message for at least one release.