Dear Experts,
First off, I'm quite familiar with grub and dual boot
machines that boot Windows or Linux. I've created them
many times. Grub will modify the MBR of the Windows drive,
and when you boot, you will choose the appropriate OS.
Problem is, if you remove the Linux drive, you
might have problems with Windows, depending on how you
did the configuration.
I have a tough requirement for you. There is a Redhat
installation that I created as on a dedicated linux server.
I'm not kidding, it took WEEKS to get this install finished
and working. So, I have no interest in overwriting anything.
Now, I'd like to:
- disconnect the Linux/Redhat hard drive
- install Windows 7 stand alone
- install EasyBCD on Win 7
- reattach the Linux drive
- create an EasyBCD configuration that can choose between either OS
- NOT modify anything on the Linux drive
- if I ever want to, remove the window's drive, connect the Linux drive,
and boot Linux as I did before.
On a separate machine, I've been testing this first:
Installed Windows and Linux on separate standalone drives.
On the Windows drive, installed EasyBCD.
Attempted to make EasyBCD work.
So far, no luck. I've tried different configurations, but none
of them work successfully.
The closest one used the auto loader. It went through all
the file locations: /grub/menu.lst, /boot/grub/grub.conf,
/grub/grub.conf, and the rest.
None work, and the error message are:
Error 15: file not found
or
Error 11: unrecognized device string or you omitted the
required device partition which should lead the filename.
---------
As I think of this, there are two things.
One, on the Linux hard drive, the boot loader is on the MBR.
Will this work, or not?
Two, the grub.conf lists one single hard drive, listed as: root (hd0,1)
Intuitively, if this is to work, I expect that the drives
would need to be changed first.
See the details of my grub.conf file below.
----
Is it possible to create this kind of setup?
Perhaps using the grub commands, such as makeactive,
chainloader and rootnoverify? If so, how?
Thanks a lot!
----------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Oracle Linux Server (2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64 ro root=UUID=90c6e24f-b928-43aa-9fdb-6fcdba4d02e7 intel_iommu=on rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64.img
title Oracle Linux Server (2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=UUID=90c6e24f-b928-43aa-9fdb-6fcdba4d02e7 intel_iommu=on rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64.img
-----------
grub> find /boot/grub/grub.conf
find /boot/grub/grub.conf
(hd0,1)
First off, I'm quite familiar with grub and dual boot
machines that boot Windows or Linux. I've created them
many times. Grub will modify the MBR of the Windows drive,
and when you boot, you will choose the appropriate OS.
Problem is, if you remove the Linux drive, you
might have problems with Windows, depending on how you
did the configuration.
I have a tough requirement for you. There is a Redhat
installation that I created as on a dedicated linux server.
I'm not kidding, it took WEEKS to get this install finished
and working. So, I have no interest in overwriting anything.
Now, I'd like to:
- disconnect the Linux/Redhat hard drive
- install Windows 7 stand alone
- install EasyBCD on Win 7
- reattach the Linux drive
- create an EasyBCD configuration that can choose between either OS
- NOT modify anything on the Linux drive
- if I ever want to, remove the window's drive, connect the Linux drive,
and boot Linux as I did before.
On a separate machine, I've been testing this first:
Installed Windows and Linux on separate standalone drives.
On the Windows drive, installed EasyBCD.
Attempted to make EasyBCD work.
So far, no luck. I've tried different configurations, but none
of them work successfully.
The closest one used the auto loader. It went through all
the file locations: /grub/menu.lst, /boot/grub/grub.conf,
/grub/grub.conf, and the rest.
None work, and the error message are:
Error 15: file not found
or
Error 11: unrecognized device string or you omitted the
required device partition which should lead the filename.
---------
As I think of this, there are two things.
One, on the Linux hard drive, the boot loader is on the MBR.
Will this work, or not?
Two, the grub.conf lists one single hard drive, listed as: root (hd0,1)
Intuitively, if this is to work, I expect that the drives
would need to be changed first.
See the details of my grub.conf file below.
----
Is it possible to create this kind of setup?
Perhaps using the grub commands, such as makeactive,
chainloader and rootnoverify? If so, how?
Thanks a lot!
----------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Oracle Linux Server (2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64 ro root=UUID=90c6e24f-b928-43aa-9fdb-6fcdba4d02e7 intel_iommu=on rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64.img
title Oracle Linux Server (2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=UUID=90c6e24f-b928-43aa-9fdb-6fcdba4d02e7 intel_iommu=on rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64.img
-----------
grub> find /boot/grub/grub.conf
find /boot/grub/grub.conf
(hd0,1)