F8/F9 Multiboot question

[Daniel B. Thurman]

Tim wrote:
>
> On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 20:08 -0700, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> > What I'd like to know is, how can I convert my existing setup or
> > partition layout so that each of the Fedora partitions are bootable
> > with grub installed for which chain-loader will work?
>
> When installing extra OSs, don't install the bootloader to the disc MBR,
> but to the boot partition for that OS (with each OS having its own boot
> partition).
>
> At a simplistic level, you might install an OS with individual
> partitions like the following:
>
> system boot  (e.g. /dev/sda1)
> Fedora boot  (e.g. /dev/sda2)
> Fedora /
> Ubuntu boot
> Ubuntu /
> Debian boot
> Debian /
> OpenBSD boot
> OpenBSD /
>
> The system boot would just be where GRUB has a few files, that the BIOS
> will read to start booting.  This will be your boot menu, and to boot
> other OSs you'll chainload to their own boot partitions.  When you boot
> up, you'll see the initial boot menu (offering just Fedora, Ubuntu,
> Debian, OpenBSD, etc., and when you pick one of them, you'll move over
> to the boot menu for that distro - where you can pick which particular
> kernel they'll boot with, or just go with their defaults).
>
> To change existing installations over to working this way, you'd need to
> already have boot partitions for each one, and you'd reinstall their
> bootloaders to their own boot partitions.  e.g. You'd install Fedora's
> GRUB to /dev/sda2 not /dev/sda.
>
> Some people will share a boot partition between different OSs, but that
> *may* be a problem, if one of them updates kernels and messed with
> others.  It shouldn't happen, but I've read postings about it.
>
> > In the past, I had nightmares trying to figure this out, and was not
> > successful, but then I was not using chain-loaders either. From my
> > past experiences, for some reason I got the idea that it was a no-no
> > to have /boot installed in / - I forget why exactly - but I found that
> > /boot worked if it had it's own partition which explains my particular
> > partition layout.  It would save me a partition for other uses if I
> > can get /boot embedded within / - that would be very cool!
>
> If boot is just a directory inside /, it might be located on a part of
> the disc that the basic motherboard BIOS cannot access, so you won't be
> able to boot up.  When you make boot partitions, you can control where
> they're created, and create them in a place that BIOS can actually read.
>
> Some people think that a boot directory inside / is fine, rather than a
> partition, because it works for them, at *that* time.  But later on, as
> they install updates and other files, the location of boot-up files
> (e.g. kernel and initrd files) moves around, and can end up in an
> unreadable (by the BIOS) place.
>
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.  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.  But I am at loss to figure out how
to get each of the 3 partitions with it's own "MBR".

Thanks!
Dan