F8/F9 Multiboot question

[Daniel B. Thurman]

Tim wrote:
>
> On Sun, 2008-08-03 at 15:56 -0700, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> > What is the command for installing the "MBR" and grub into each
> > of their respective partitions?
> >
> > I tried: grub-install --recheck /dev/sdc1, and likewise for /dev/sdc2
> > and /dev/sdc3 but nothing happens.
>
> I've never bothered with grub-install, other than the one time it didn't
> do what it was supposed to.  After that I decided not to bother with it
> again.  I issue the real commands directly:
>
> The grub command to enter a GRUB shell. 
> The root command to tell GRUB where /boot will be (and GRUB's root is
> held). 
> The find command to check that GRUB can find the files it needs. 
> The setup command to setup which drive MBR to write to, or which
> partition.
> And the quit command to write all the changes and exit. 
>
> Pasting of a session is below, the GRUB input prompts are beside
> "grub>", the rest is output.
>
> [root at localhost ~]# grub
> Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
>
>
>     GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)
>
>  [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
>    lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the
> possible
>    completions of a device/filename.]
> grub> root (hd0,0)
> root (hd0,0)
>  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> grub>  find /grub/stage1
> find /grub/stage1
>  (hd0,0)
> grub> setup (hd0)
> setup (hd0)
>  Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
>  Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
>  Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  23 sectors are embedded.
> succeeded
>  Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+23 p
> (hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
> Done.
> grub> quit
> quit
> [root at localhost ~]#
>
> My set of examples picks my first boot partition (the root command), and
> writes back to the disc's MBR (the setup command).  You'd change the
> root and setup parameters to suit each installation, to install GRUB
> "stage ones" into each boot partition.  In your case, you'd pick the
> same drive and partition for the root and setup commands.
>
> By the way, grub-install is just a script.  You can read it and see how
> it works, if you really want to.
>
> > Since I had copies of /boot for f8 and f9 I simply copied f8's boot
> > files into /dev/sdc2 and f9's boot files into /dev/sdc3 but
> > for /dev/sdc1 (boot-sys), I copied f8's boot files into /dev/sdc1,
> > removed initd*, vm*, and System*, edited grub/grub.conf with the
> > chain-loaders like you said.
>
> Hmm, I don't know exactly what you mean by "boot files".  Each /boot
> partition would have that OS's kernel files, and a grub sub-directory
> for that installation's GRUB files (menus, stage loaders, etc.).  There
> shouldn't be any need to copy things about.
>
> Inside /boot/grub:
>
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root     63 2008-06-01 01:39 device.map
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11768 2008-06-01 01:39 e2fs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11528 2008-06-01 01:39 fat_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10776 2008-06-01 01:39 ffs_stage1_5
> -rw------- 1 root root   1700 2008-07-27 16:47 grub.conf
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10768 2008-06-01 01:39 iso9660_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12440 2008-06-01 01:39 jfs_stage1_5
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     11 2008-06-01 01:39 menu.lst -> ./grub.conf
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10984 2008-06-01 01:39 minix_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  83780 2008-06-30 12:22 mixer-cropped.xpm.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  85014 2008-06-30 12:22 mixer.xpm.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13376 2008-06-01 01:39 reiserfs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  66003 2008-04-12 05:32 splash.xpm.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2008-06-01 01:39 stage1
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 110532 2008-06-01 01:39 stage2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11040 2008-06-01 01:39 ufs2_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10376 2008-06-01 01:39 vstafs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13016 2008-06-01 01:39 xfs_stage1_5
>
> > But I am at loss to figure out how to get each of the 3 partitions
> > with it's own "MBR".
>
> Terminology problem...  MBR is Master Boot Record, there's only one of
> them per disc.  Initial stages of GRUB can be put in the disc MBR, or at
> the beginning of individual partitions (not a MBR, but something
> similar, and a mental blank strikes me as to its proper name).
>
Here is my drive partitions:
========================
/dev/sdb - Sata - 750GB drive
[Sizes specified are not exact]

/dev/sdb1 - boot-sys  (100MB)
/dev/sdb2 - boot-f8    (100MB)
/dev/sdb3 - boot-f9    (100MB)
/dev/sdb4 - Extended
/dev/sdb5 - root-f8     (175GB)
/dev/sdb6 - root-f9     (175GB)
/dev/sdb7 - f-App1    (351GB)
/dev/sdb8 - swap        (~5GB)

Ok, I have thus far, set up a new drive with the partitions, finally
figured out how to get the new drive's MBR installed and to use
the boot-sys (/dev/sdb1)  file, but apparently, the chain-loaders could
not boot the root-f8 (/dev/sdb5) nor root-f9 (/dev/sdb6) filesystem.  Do
I need to make the [boot-f8 (/dev/sdb2) and boot-f9 (/dev/sdb3) ] and/or
[ root-f8 (/dev/sdb5) and root-f9 (/dev/sdb6) ] filesystems bootable?

If so, what command do I need to use to make these partitions bootable?

Thanks!
Dan