? How to edit GRUB4DOS

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XOPS

Member
I have a new build dual boot system with win7 and PCLOS Linux. The only way I was able to accomplish this is with EasyBCD 2.3 and making a separate /boot partition for the Linux install. It works fine for Win7 but not for Linux if I connect and power up an eSATA disk before booting.

When I power up an eSATA drive and then attempt to boot up and into Linux, the system hangs and I get a message from GRUB4DOS, which says

If hangup, use 'geometry --lba1sector (129)' at the beginning of preset menu

The UEFI bios is in legacy mode, the booting SSD is in SATA port 0 and the eSATA bracket is in SATA port 1.

So my question the is "Where is the GRUB4DOS preset menu and how do I edit it?

Thanks - XOPS
 
Well, it's been two weeks, 65 people have viewed my call for help but no one seems to know the answer. Apparently, where the GRUB4DOS script is located and how to edit it requires secret knowledge known only to the elite. Maybe the viewers also were seeking that secret.

The good news is that I swapped the SATA cables and the problem went away. My bad, I misread some odd labeling on the motherboard.

Even though everything does (eventually) boot now, I still have to wait and wait while a whole bunch of "presets" run in GRUB4DOS before it announces a "kludge" and starts the PCLOS Linux booting.

I'll keep searching, but at this point perhaps I should settle for just removing all changes implemented by EasyBCD, use GRUB to boot Linux and chainload the win stuff. That will likely also be challenging but perhaps not so secret as GRUB4DOS.

Thanks for looking - XOPS
 
Hello XOPS,

If you created an auto-configured Linux entry, you cannot edit the menu file at all - it is baked into the binary bootloader blobs that EasyBCD generates and loads from the BCD. What you can do is create a manual grub4dos/neogrub entry (Add Entry | NeoGrub) and configure that. EasyBCD will give you the option of loading the menu file to edit, or you can browse to it yourself and modify it.

I hope this helps.
 
That greatly clarifies how the things work. I appreciate your help and EasyBCD provided a great solution for one lacking knowledge of mutibooting and it WORKED! I may come back but for now the Linux plus GRUB2 is a new challenge that may prove out.

Thanks for your response and a great product.
 
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