howto configure grub-2 for special purpose?

[Treutwein Bernhard]

since I am quite comfortable using Grub legacy's commandline and 
I'd like to experiment a bit with Grub-2, I would like to have
a configuration, where Grub legacy sits in my USB sticks MBR
and has its files in the USB sticks /boot/grub directory.

I would like to have the Grub-2 files in directory /boot/grub2 on 
the USB stick. When I fetch grub-1.99~rc2 and do a standard

        ./configure && make && make install

and then a 

        ./grub-install --grub-setup=/bin/true --no-floppy \
                --boot-directory /boot/grub2 /dev/sdb

I end up with a directory /boot/grub2/grub filled with Grub-2
files and not in /boot/grub2.

Moreover when I boot into Grub2 via Grub-legacy I end up in
the grub-rescue mode and a "no such partition" error.

prefix=(hd0,msdos2)/boot/grub2/grub
root=hd0,msdos2

despite ls is telling me that there is 

(hd9) (hd0,msdos1) ...

Where is my error?

How should I configure Grub-2 to achive my goals?

regards

   Bernhard