Re: Is it possible to install GRUB (legacy) to a raw filesystem without partition table?

[Ottavio]

On 26 March 2011 08:32, Jordan Uggla <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 8:22 AM, Ottavio <address@hidden> wrote:

>> I would like to know if it is possible to install GRUB (legacy) to a
>> raw filesystem without partition table.
>
> It's possible with grub2, though it's not recommended. GRUB legacy has
> not had an upstream for over 5 years (and thus also no upstream
> support). Why not  use grub2?

Because I am using a Fedora 14 64 bit image and I can't seen to find
grub2 here but only grub-0.97:
http://mirrors.nl.eu.kernel.org/fedora/releases/14/Fedora/x86_64/os/Packages/

If anybody knows a Grub2 binary for Fedora 14 64 bit it will be appreciated.

>
> It's usually best to start with the details of your specific problem
> when asking for support.

Ok, that's what I did.

I downloaded a preinstalled Fedora 14/64 bit image from:
http://fs.devloop.org.uk/

These images have no networking, no bootloader and no kernel and are
installed as a raw filesystem with no partition table and MBR, so they
can only be accessed via chroot.

I have used qemu to mount two working images of Slackware 64 bit which
was using in the past plus the fedora image. Once booted, the images
are recognized as such;

/dev/sda1 slackware /
/dev/sdb1 slackware /usr
/dev/sdc  fedora-14_x86_64

Note the /dev/sdc instead of /dev/sdc1
Note also that there's no grub on Slackware, only LILO.

I have started networking on Slack and mounted Fedora

# mount /dev/sdc /mnt
# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
# chroot /mnt
# yum install kernel
# yum install grub
# grub --version
grub (GNU GRUB 0.97)
# ls /boot/grub
device.map stage1 stage2 *stage1_5 splash.xpm.gz <and other files>

<!-- so all files seem to be there -->

# grub-install /dev/sdc
No suitable drive was found in the generated device map
# cat /boot/grub/device.map
(fd0) /dev/df0

# grub
grub > find /boot/grub/stage1
Error 1: File not found

grub > find /mnt/boot/grub/stage1
Error 1: File not found

I edited /boot/grub/device.map myself and added:

(hd2) /dev/sdc

exited from chroot and run:

# /mnt/sbin/grub

grub > root (hd2)
Filesystem type unknown, using whole disk

grub > setup (hd2)
Error 17 : Cannot mount selected partition


So at this stage I am not sure if it is because grub doesn't know how
to install to a raw filesystem or because I am not using the right
syntax or because I am in a chroot.

Any help appreciated


-- 
Ottavio

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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