There is always a desire to ship the latest version of any software product; including boot loaders. However, upgrading a boot loader can be a frightening and risky procedure. Currently, the primary boot loader for x86 platforms is Grub. This boot loader has not been updated since the year 2006 and it is getting 'long in the tooth'. Grub does not support newer BIOS firmwares such as EFI and there is no intention that it ever will.
There is a replacement for Grub, which has been in development for approximately 6 years now; it is called Grub2. Switching to Grub2 would provide support for newer computer systems, internationalization, 'updates', 'bug fixes' and other improvements.
So, it is believed everyone would like to switch the default boot loader to Grub2. This upgrade makes sense and it allows development to move forward. Why don't we just replace Grub, then? There is one important question that needs to be answered. Is every computer system supported by Grub2 which Grub currently supports? This question is difficult to answer unless sufficient testing has been completed. That's where this page comes in.
Testing Grub2
If you are using (Jaunty Jackalope) or later, then Grub2 can be installed as a chain-loading boot loader and in parallel with your existing Grub installation. This will allow booting into Grub and selecting Grub2 from the boot loader menu. Then, you can test Grub2 for any problems before upgrading from Grub.
Even, if you are only able to test your computer by using Grub2 as a chain-loading boot loader; this would give the development team more information as to the viability of Grub2.
Before Testing
Note: If you perform this upgrade from (Jaunty Jackalope) then, YOUR COMPUTER WILL NOT BOOT FROM THE HDD. Read and follow the instructions about changing "root" to "UUID" below.
Though, it is less likely you will have any issues when attempting a boot loader update; we strongly recommend that you take the necessary precautions for such a procedure. It is recommended that you have a current backup of your computer system before attempting this. You have backups, right? Also, it is recommended that you have a bootable optical drive or bootable USB disk available. Should you be unable to boot after the installation, then you can boot from one of these devices to repair the installation.
How To Install Grub2
sudo apt-get install grub-pc
At the first prompt, select OK. Next, at the "Chainload from menu.lst" prompt answer "Yes". And at the "Linux command line:" prompt just press the Enter key.
This will install Grub2 and modify the existing Grub boot loader menu, allowing one to chain-load Grub2 for testing on your computer. At this stage, the original Grub is still the primary boot loader, keeping its original boot menu items.
Note: Only in (Jaunty Jackalope) was there a bug in the Grub2 installer, (LP#376879), where it modifies the existing Grub configuration incorrectly. If you experience this problem, at the "Chainload into Grub 2" menu item, press 'e' to edit the configuration. Press 'e' a second time to edit the top boot line and change: to: and press the Enter key after editing this line. Then press 'b' to chainload and boot Grub2. Note: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx is your partition UUID number. If you can boot from Grub2 successfully, then you can install Grub2 onto your computer system as the main boot loader using the command: NOTE: Make sure that you hit the space bar to select /dev/sda when it asks you the location where Grub needs to be installed. If you hit enter on this screen it will not install Grub on /dev/sda and your system will not boot.
If you hit enter and Grub reports an error boot, then you need to boot the system from a bootable drive; such as a USB Flash Drive or Optical Drive. On my laptop, root is located on /dev/sda2 and /boot is located on /dev/sda1, you can find this out by the command mount each to see which /dev/sda has what. Once you done that you need to mount your root 1st, in my case /dev/sda2 if you ls your /mnt you should see /boot, /dev, /home etc from your HDD. Now mount your /boot in my case it is on a separate partition called /dev/sda1 Next you need to bind mount all your devices from USB to the HDD... chroot into your HDD system and fix things... now you can run the command grub-install again to install grub to your /dev/sda Hit CTRL+D to get out of the chroot, unmount dirs in LIFO order, /mnt/dev, /mnt/boot and /mnt. reboot the system and you are good to go!
If you do not want to install grub2 on your machine but you do want to see if it works with your BIOS, an alternative test is as follows: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~cking/grub2-boot-tests/bootable-grub2-2.5GB.img.bz2
(Please add your machine in the correct alphabetical order) NOTE: if you only test chainloaded, put UNTESTED in the native column. Machine Chainloaded Native Root Filesystem Dual Boot Root on LVM and/or MD (which?) Abit IT7 homebuilt PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty + Windows XP SP3 No Abaco Primo PASS PASS ext3 No No Acer Aspire 3055 PASS PASS ext4 No Acer Aspire 3680 PASS PASS ext4 No No Acer Aspire 4530-5627 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic + Windows 7 (pre RC) Acer Aspire 4520 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Vista Acer Aspire 5050 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Jaunty Acer Aspire 5022 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows XP No Acer Aspire 5024 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows XP No Acer Aspire 5051 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows XP No Acer Aspire 5103 WLMi PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows Vista No Acer Aspire 5515 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows 7RC No Acer Aspire 5520 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows XP No Acer Aspire 5672 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows XP No Acer Aspire 5735 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows 7RC Acer Aspire 5737Z PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows 7RC Acer Aspire 5738ZG (GeForce G105M) PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows Vista No Acer Aspire 5920 (Intel GM965 Graphics) PASS PASS ext4 (ext3 for /boot) Hardy + Jaunty(with 2.6.30 kernel) + Windows XP + Fedora 11 Root on LVM Acer Aspire 5920 PASS PASS 1 ext4 Ubuntu Jaunty, Windows Vista Acer Aspire 5930G PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty, Windows Vista Acer Aspire 6930G PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows Vista Acer Aspire One PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows 7 + Haiku Acer Aspire One PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows 7 + Moblin2 Acer Aspire One D150 PASS PASS ext3 yes (encrypted) Acer Extensa 5220 PASS PASS ext4 No No Acer Extensa 5620Z PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows XP Acer Extensa 5630Z PASS PASS ext4 No No Acer Ferrari 3400 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + WinXP No Acer TravelMate 3260 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows 7 + Fedora 11 No Acer TravelMate 6292 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows Vista + Karmic No Acer TravelMate 8471 PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows Vista No Acer TravelMate 8106wlmi PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows 7 No Apple Macbook 1.1 PASS PASS ext4 No No Apple Macbook 2.1 PASS PASS ext3 No No Apple Macbook 3.1 PASS PASS ext3 No OSX + Karmic + Windows 7 Apple Macbook 4.1 PASS PASS ext3 No No Apple Macbook 5.1 UNTESTED PASS ext4 No Apple MacbookPro 4.1 PASS PASS ext3 No (MacOS-X with Refit, not GRUB) Apple MacbookPro 5.1 PASS PASS ext4 No (MacOS-X with Refit, not GRUB) Asrock 775 Dual VSTA home built PASS PASS ext4 No No Asrock P45TS PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows Vista No Asus A6Ja PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty No Asus A6K PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + WinXP Home No Asus A7V133 PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows XP No Asus A7V8X-X PASS PASS ext3 Karmic No Asus A8N-E PASS PASS ext3 Karmic No Asus A8N-VM CSM PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows Vista No Asus A8Sc PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Gentoo No Asus A8js UNTESTED PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows XP No Asus EEE-PC 900 PASS PASS ext3 No No Asus EEE-PC 900A PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Recovery Asus EEE-PC 1000 PASS PASS ext4 No Asus EEE-PC 1000H PASS PASS ext3 jaunty + recovery Asus EEE-PC 1000H PASS PASS ext4 No Asus EEE-PC 1000H PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Jaunty + Fedora 11 No Asus EEE-PC 1000HE PASS PASS ext3 jaunty + winXP + Win recovery Asus EEE-PC 1005HA PASS PASS ext4 No No Asus EEE-PC 1005HA PASS PASS xfs Karmic + WinXP No Asus F3Jc PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows XP No Asus F9F PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Win Vista NO Asus F5SL PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Win Vista + Win recovery NO Asus M2A-VM PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty LVM Asus M2NPV-VM PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty64 Jaunty32 Hardy No Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe PASS PASS ext3 (ext2 for /boot) No, only Jaunty No Asus M4A78T-E Untested Pass ext4 Karmic x64 + Vista x64 No Asus M4N82 Deluxe PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Vista x64 (XP 64 failed to boot) LVM Asus M51SN PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows 7 NO Asus N10J PASS PASS ext4 Karmic, Jaunty, Vista NO Asus P4P800-E Deluxe PASS PASS ext3 No No Asus P5B PASS PASS ext4 Karmic No Asus P5B PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty 64bit, Windows 7 RC 64 bit No Asus P5B-Deluxe PASS PASS ext3, ext4 Jaunty 64bit, Windows 7 RC 64 bit LVM Asus P5B-Deluxe PASS PASS ext4 Karmic 64bit, Windows 7 RTM 64 bit, windows XP NO Asus P5GD2-Basic PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, XP No Asus P5LD2 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic, Windows Vista Asus P5K PASS PASS ext3 mounted as ext4 Karmic, XP encrypted root Asus P5K-E PASS UNTESTED ext4 Jaunty No Asus P5K-E Wifi-AP PASS PASS ext3 Koala + Windows XP No Asus P5N-E SLI PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty, Intrepid, Debian Lenny, Windows XP No Asus P5Q-E (AHCI) Intel Q955 PASS UNTESTED jfs Jaunty, Win7 RC No Asus P5Q Deluxe PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Karmic + Win7 RC Asus P5WDG2 WS pro PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Karmic + Win7 RC Asus P6T Deluxe V2 PASS PASS ext4 No Asus U3S PASS PASS ext3 Karmic, Vista Ultimate Asus Z7000 (Notebook) PASS PASS ext3 No No Asus Z8PE-D12X Board PASS PASS ext4/2TB+ UNTESTED UNTESTED ATX QDI KinetiZ 7E See Dual-Boot PASS ext3 Multiple OS on hd0 and hd14 No BenQ Joybook 5000 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty + WinXP No Clevo TN120R PASS PASS ext3 Karmic No Compal JHL90 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty + Arch No Compaq Deskpro EN SFF 667 PASS PASS reiserfs No, Jaunty 9.04 Server No Compaq Evo D500 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic Compaq FL90 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + WinXP HP Compaq dc7100 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Debian HP Compaq dc7800 PASS PASS ext3 Yes. Karmic Koala and Windows 7 RC Compaq Presario 2100 (2104US) UNTESTED PASS ext4 UNTESTED Compaq Presario 2158 PARTIAL PARTIAL5 ext4 Yes, Jaunty+Windows No Compaq Presario C700 PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows 7 RC Compaq Presario CQ50 PASS PASS ext4 vista Compaq Presario CQ60 PASS PASS ext3 vista Compaq Presario F700 PASS PASS ext4 No Compaq Presario F761US PASS PASS ext4 No Compaq Presario SR1000 PASS PASS ext4 No Compaq Presario SR1135CL PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows XP No Compaq Presario SR1940IL PASS PASS ext3 No No Compaq Presario SR2129 PASS PASS6 ext4 Vista + Recovery + Karmic No Compaq Presario V2000 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + WinXp Compaq Presario V5120 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + WinXP Dell Dimension E520n PASS PASS ext3 9.04 + other Linux + no MSWin Dell Dimension 1100 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Dimension 3100C UNTESTED PASS ext4 No Dell Dimension 4550 PASS PASS ext3 9.10 beta + XP Dell Dimension 4600i PASS PASS ext4 9.04 and WinXP SP3 Dell Dimension 8200 PASS PASS ext3 No Yes, MD RAID 1 Dell Dimension 8400 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + XP Dell Inspiron 510M PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows 7 RC (labeled Vista) No Dell Inspiron 530 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 530 PASS PASS ext4 No Dell Inspiron 530s with extra hard disk (BIOS boots from /dev/sdb) PASS FAIL7/RECOVERED ext4 Karmic + Vista No Dell Inspiron 535 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 1420 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 1420 PASS PASS ext4 No Dell Inspiron 1501 PASS PASS ext4 jaunty + karmic + vista Dell Inspiron 1520 PASS PASS ext3 karmic + Windows 7 Dell Inspiron 1521 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Vista Dell Inspiron 1525 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 1525 PASS UNTESTED ext4 No 8 Dell Inspiron 1545 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 1720 UNTESTED PASS ext4 kub-jaun + stud-jaun No LVM Dell Inspiron 5000 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Inspiron 6400 PASS PASS ext3 Vista Dell Inspiron 6400 PASS PASS ext4 Win7 Dell Inspiron 640m PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Inspiron 8600 PASS UNTESTED ext3 No Yes LVM Dell Inspiron 8600 PASS PASS ext3 (ext2 for /boot) Jaunty + Windows XP Dell Inspiron 9300 PASS PASS ext3 Grub1 from Puppy Linux in MBR, Grub2 in partition boot record, Grub2 also boots WinXP (untested) Yes LVM Dell Inspiron 9400 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows XP No Dell Inspiron e1405 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Win 7 No Dell Mini 9 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Mini 10 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Mini 10v PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Latitude C610 UNTESTED PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows 7 No Dell Latitude C640 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Latitude D430 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + WindowsXP No Dell Latitude D520 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Latitude D600 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + WindowsXP No Dell Latitude D610 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + WindowsXP No Dell Latitude D620 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + WindowsXP No Dell Latitude D630 PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows7 No Dell Latitude D630 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + WindowsXP No Dell Latitude D820 PASS PASS ext4 No No Dell Latitude D820 PARTIAL9 PARTIAL9 ext4 Jaunty + OpenSolaris 2009/06 + Win XP + OSX86 No Dell Latitude D830 PASS PASS reiserfs Jaunty + Windows 7 No Dell Latitude E4300 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Latitude E5500 PASS PASS ext4 Yes: XP/NTFS + Linux/JFS No Dell Latitude E6400 PASS PASS ext3 Yes: Karmic + Vista Dell Latitude E6500 PASS PASS ext4 No No Dell Latitude E6500 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell M1330 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Dell XPS Gen 5 lshw PASS PASS ext4 No No Dell XPS M1210 PASS PASS ext4 (/boot = ext3) No No Dell XPS M1330 PASS PASS ext4 No No Dell XPS M1530 PASS PASS ext4 No LVM Dell XPS M1530 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Windows Vista MD Dell XPS M1730 PASS PASS ext3 Yes: Windows XP Pro, Jaunty Manual Setup Dell XPS M170 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic Koala, Windows XP Media Center No(manual setup) Dell Optiplex 740 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, XP Dell Optiplex 755 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, XP No Dell Optiplex 760 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Optiplex GX270 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Optiplex GX270 PASS PASS ext4 Yes Dell Optiplex GX620 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Precision 390n PASS UNTESTED ext3 No Yes, LVM Dell Precision 530 MT (hwdb) PASS PASS10 ext3 Yes, win2k, hardy (jaunty partition is chainloaded from hardy's grub) No Dell Precision M90 PASS PASS ext4 Yes (Jaunty/Karmic) No Dell Precision T3400 PASS PASS ext3 No No Dell Precision T3400 UNTESTED FAILED TO INSTALL ext3 YES dmraid 0 Dell Precision T7500n PASS PASS ext4 NO NO Dell Studio 1535 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Studio 1536 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + WinXP No Dell Studio 1537 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Dell Studio 1537 PASS PASS ext2 Jaunty + Windows Vista Dell Studio 1537 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + Windows Vista Dell Studio 1555 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows 7 No Dell Studio 14xx PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Studio 1735 PASS PASS 11 ext4 No No Dell Studio 540 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic + Windows 7 No Dell Studio XPS 1340 PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Studio XPS 1340 PASS PASS ext4 Dell Recovery, Vista, Jaunty No Dell Studio XPS 16xx PASS PASS ext3 No Dell Studio Studio Slim FAIL PASS (albeit installed on other drive than expected) ext4 YES, ludicrous setup, Vista and Fedora and Ubuntu between two drives, /boot for Ubuntu on the opposite drive Lots of LVM Dell Vostro 1500 UNTESTED PASS ext4 No Dell Vostro 1710 PASS UNTESTED ext4 7xLinux, Vista No Dell Vostro 1720 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic, Vista No Dell Vostro 2200 PASS PASS ext4 No No Dell XPS M1330 PASS PASS ext4 Vista No Dell XPS M1530 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No DNUK Deskcube D500 amd64 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty upgraded to Karmic md=Raid1 The upgrades to grub-1.97~beta4-1ubuntu2 and dmraid-1.0.0.rc15-11ubuntu3 fixed this double fail for me. DNUK Deskcube D500 amd64 n/a PASS ext4 Karmic beta install None eMachines E725 PASS PASS ext3 No No eMachines ET1161-03 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Vista No Foxconn A7GM-S PASS PASS ext4 (Karmic Koala) + Windows 7 No Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505 PASS PASS ext3 (reiserfs on /boot) Jaunty + Windows Vista No Fujitsu-Siemens Pi1505 PASS PASS ext4 Karmic, XP ? Fujitsu-Siemens Pi2515 PASS PASS ext4 No Fujitsu-Siemens Pa3553 PASS PASS ext3 Yes. Jaunty and Windows Vista Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo V5505 PASS PASS ext3, ext4 Yes Jaunty/Solaris/MacOS X 10.6 Encrypted LVM, LVM Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo p5600 PASS PASS ext4 Yes. Jaunty/WinXP SP3 No Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xa 3530 PASS PASS ext3, ext4 Jaunty, Karmic + Windows 7 No Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xi 2428 PASS PASS reiserfs (ext2 for /boot) Windows XP No Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V3505 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, Debian Lenny No Fujitsu Lifebook E8210 PASS PASS ext4 Windows XP No Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook P1620 PASS ext3 Karmic and Jaunty Karmic LVM Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook P7010 PASS PASS ext3 Windows XP + Karmic No Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010 PASS PASS ext3 Windows XP No Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook T4215 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No No Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic D1214 PASS PASS ext3 No No Gateway ML6720 PASS PASS EXT4 (EXT2 for /boot) Windows XP + Karmic No Gigabyte Nforce4 SLI GA-K8N Pro-SLI PASS PASS ext4 Windows XP Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H PASS PASS ext4 No No Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty and Windows 7 RC No Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty and WindowsXP No Gigabyte AMD 790GX MA790GP-DS4H PASS PASS ext3 No No HP 530 PASS PASS ext4 Yes. Jaunty and Windows 7 RC No HP Compaq Evo N800v PASS PASS ext3 No HP Compaq 6710b PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty + Windows 7 RC No HP Compaq 6715s PASS PASS ext3 Karmic + Windows XP + FreeDOS No HP Compaq 6730b UNTESTED PASS ext3 No No HP Compaq 6730s PASS PASS ext4 Yes Karmic + Fedora 12 No HP Compaq 6820s PASS PASS ext4 Yes. Jaunty and Windows 7 RC1 No HP Compaq 8510p PASS PASS ext3 Yes. Jaunty and Windows XP HP Compaq 8710p PASS PASS ext3 No HP Compaq tc4200 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty + XP No HP Compaq nc6320 PASS PASS ext3 No HP Compaq nc6120 PASS UNTESTED ext3 Jaunty and Windows XP No HP Compaq nw8440 UNTESTED PASS12 ext2,ext3,ext4,reiser Jaunty, Xp and a custom Finnix Yes, cryptsetup LUKS HP Compaq nx6325 PASS PASS ext3 Yes. Jaunty and Windows XP No HP Compaq nx7300 PASS PASS ext3 No No HP EliteBook 6930p UNTESTED PASS ext4 Yes. Ubuntu 9.10 + Windows XP SP3 + Windows 7 No HP Laptop 6910p PASS PASS ext4 Yes. Jaunty and Jaunty HP Laptop 8730w PASS PASS ext3 Yes. Jaunty and Windows XP HP DV4T PASS PASS ext4 No HP DV5 1153EO PASS PASS ext4 No HP DV6000t CTO PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Windows 7 Beta, 8.04 Hardy on other partition No HP DV6748us PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Karmic Koala and Windows XP No HP DV6809wm PASS PASS ext4 Yes: Jaunty & Vista HP DX2200 Microtower PASS PASS ext4 No No HP Pavilion a6040.nl (GC523AA) PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Vista No HP Mini (1035NR) PASS PASS ext4 No No HP Mini (2133) PASS PASS ext3, ext4 Yes: Karmic, Jaunty, Vista, XP No HP Pavilion D4595.se PASS PASS ext3 Yes : 64-bit Jaunty, 32-bit Windows Server 2008 and Vista Business No HP Pavilion dv6607nr PASS PASS ext3 No No HP Pavilion dv6635el PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty and Windows Vista No HP Pavilion dv6653eo PASS PASS ext3 Karmic and Windows Vista No HP Pavlion dv9398 PASS PASS ext3 Yes : 64-bit Jaunty, 32-bit Vista Business No HP Pavilion 9700 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Vista No HP Pavilion a6040.nl (GC523AA) PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Vista No PASS PASS ext4 No No HP Proliant DL380 Servers with cciss controller FAIL FAIL ext3 No No Due to the following debian bugs in grub-mkdevicemap #479056 #479735 in Hardy (1.96+20080203-1ubuntu2) HP SlimLine s3315.fr PASS PASS ext4 No No HP SlimLine s3315.fr PASS PASS ext4 Yes : Jaunty / Vista No HP TX1000 GA647UA PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty, Vista No HP TX1350et PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic Alpha2, Windows 7 RC IBM Netfinity 5600 PASS PASS ext3 No Root on LVM IBM NetVista A40 PASS PASS ext3 No No IBM Thinkcentre A50 PASS PASS ext4 No iDeq N1 SFF system (nForce4 C51 Ge6100/410), lshw LILO14 PASS15 ext3 Yes, karmic + hardy LVM Intel Core 2 DP35DP self-build (Intel BIOS) PASS FAIL ext4 Yes - 9.04 & Windows XP No Intel Core 2 Quad self-build (based on a ASUS P5K) [kalon33] PASS PASS ext4 Yes, with Win7 RC, Jaunty and Karmic alpha Intel D945GNT PASS PASS ext4 No Intel D915PCY PASS PASS ext4 Yes, with Jaunty and Win7 RC Intel DG965WH (DIY) PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, Windows XP No Intel DP45SG PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, Vista, Windows 7 RC No Intel Quad Core self-build (AMI BIOS) [lana] PASS PASS ext4 No Intel Quad Core self-build (AMI BIOS) [chloe] PASS PASS ext4 No Intel DQ35JO PASS PASS ext4 No root on LVM on md RAID1 Intel BOXDQ45CB PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, Win7 No Intel D975XBX2 PASS PASS ext3 Koala No Kohjinsha SC3WB06GH FAIL16 PASS ext3 Vista + Recovery + Jaunty + Hardy No Kohjinsha SH6WP10A PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo 3000 N100 (0768) PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo 3000 N100 (0768) PASS PASS ext4 Windows XP Home Edition (SP3)17 Lenovo 3000 N200 PASS PASS ext3 No Lenovo 3000 V100 Untested PASS ext3 No Lenovo G530 PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo Ideapad S10 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Lenovo Ideapad Y530 PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo R61 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty + Win Vista No Lenovo R61i PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty + Win Vista No Lenovo T43p PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic + Win Vista No Lenovo T60 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty + WinXP Pro Lenovo T61 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Lenovo T61 PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo T61 PASS UNTESTED ext4 No encrypted LVM Lenovo T61 PASS UNTESTED ext4 Yes, Jaunty, Windows Xp Lenovo T61, BIOS 7LETB0WW/2.10 (mdz) PASS PASS ext4 No No Lenovo T61p PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo T400 PASS PASS ext3 No No Lenovo T400 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic, Windows XP No Lenovo R500 PASS PASS ext3 Triple, Karmic + Vista +OSX86 No Lenovo T500 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty, Windows XP No Lenovo T500 PASS PASS ext4 No, Karmik No Lenovo W500 PASS PASS ext4 No Lenovo X200 PASS PASS ext3 No Lenovo X200s UNTESTED PASS ext4 Karmic, Jaunty, Squeeze root (and /boot) on LVM Lenovo X200s PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty No Lenovo X301 PASS PASS ext4 Jaunty No Lenovo Y410 PASS PASS ext4 Yes; Karmic,Windows Vista No LG S1 Express Dual PASS PASS ReiserFS 3 Yes, Karmic, Windows XP Medion MD96640 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic, Vista No Micron TREK2 (PIII on Intel440 chipset) PASS PASS ext4 No Root on LVM MSI EX600 laptop Intel core2duo on PM965 chipset PASS PASS ext4 no, karmic no MSI K8MM-V (Sempron 64-bit, VIA K8M800-CE, socket 754) PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Windows XP no MSI K7N2 Delta 2 Platinum Skt A See Dual-Boot PASS ext3 Multiple OS on hd0 and hd118 No MSI K9NGM2-FID AM2 3800+ PASS PASS ext4 NO NO MSI P35 Platinum PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic.a1 + Jaunty MSI Wind U100 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Intrepid, Jaunty root on LVM MSI Wind U100 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Karmic, XP no MSI Wind U100 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic, XP no MSI Wind U100 PASS PASS 19 ext4 Yes, Jaunty, XP, Windows 7 (RC), OS X 10.5.5 no MSI Wind U90x PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty, SLES 10 no MSI Wind nettop PC 100 (hwdb) PASS PASS ext3 Yes, jaunty + 2nd jaunty root on LVM Nexoc Osiris S615 II PASS PASS ext3 - NO Novatech Nomad (rebranded Uniwill M30EI0) PASS PASS ext3 No root on LVM PackardBell EasyNote MX52b PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty, Vista SE ? PackardBell EasyNote MX36 PASS PASS ext3 Karmic Koala, Vista SE no PackardBell iStart 2380 PASS PASS ext3 Windows XP PackardBell iDesign 7155 PASS PASS ext4 Yes (Jaunty, XP) No Parallels Desktop 4.0.3844 for Mac PASS PASS ext3 No ? Point of View mobii NB9010 UNTESTED PASS xfs (/boot = ext3) Karmic UNR & WinXP No Samsung N110 PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty UNR, Windows XP, Windows Recovery No Samsung NC10 PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty UNR, Windows XP Home, No Samsung X65 PASS PASS reiserfs No No Sapphire PE-AM2RS690HD motherboard c/w AMD 3800+ PASS PASS10 ext4 No No PASS PASS ext3 No No PASS PASS ext4 No No Self-built, I7 920-Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P PASS PASS ext4 and ext3 YES/NO - 5 linux installs-wrong ID attached to some installs PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty and Windows Vista No Self-built, lshw PASS PASS ext3 NO NO Self-built, lshw PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Jaunty & Windows 2000 20 NO Self-built, Abit IC7 mobo PASS PASS ext4 No No Self-built, Abit SG-95 mobo PASS PASS ext4 No No Self-built, ASUS A7V8X-X mobo PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty and Windows XP No Self-built, ASUS A8N-SLI mobo PASS PASS ext3 No No Self-built, ASUS M2N-E PASS PASS ext4 vista Self built, ASUS P5K mobo PASS PASS ext4 Yes, Karmic, Windows 7RC No Self-built, Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 mobo UNTESTED PASS ext4 (/boot: ext3) YES: Jaunty / Windows XP No Self-built, Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3H mobo UNTESTED PASS ext4 (/boot: ext4) No Yes (root: on LVM over RAID10 MD; boot: on RAID1 MD) Self-built, MSI K9A2 CF mobo PASS PASS ext3 Yes, Jaunty and Windows XP No PASS PASS ext4 Windows XP , Ubuntu Jaunty No Self-built, MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R, lshw PASS PASS ext4 No No Shuttle SG33 (hwdb entry) PASS PASS ext3 yes, hardy and intrepid No Sony Vaio PCG-6N1M PASS PASS ext3 No No Sony Vaio VGN-FE31H PASS PASS ext3 and ext4 Yes : jaunty(ext3) + karmic(ext4) -- Sony Vaio VGN-FW21J UNTESTED PASS ext3 Yes : karmic(amd64)(ext3) + windows7(64bit) + notebook recovery partition(32bit) -- Sony Vaio VGN-NS11M PASS PASS ext4 No Sony Vaio VGN-T140P PASS PASS ext4 No: Karmic only -- Sony Vaio VGN-TZ27GN PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty and XP -- Thinkpad I1400 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No PASS PASS ext3, later ext4 No No Thinkpad T30 PASS PASS ext3 No Thinkpad T42P UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Thinkpad X301 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Thinkpad R50e PASS PASS ext4 and ext3 Jaunty, Jaunty and Windows XP No Thinkpad R51 PASS PASS ext3 (Karmic) No Thinkpad R51 PASS PASS ext4 No lvm Thinkpad R61 UNTESTED PASS ext4 (Karmic) No Thinkpad R61 PASS PASS ext4 (Karmic) No Thinkpad T60 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Thinkpad T60 UNTESTED PASS ext4 Root on LVM Thinkpad T60 PASS PASS ext4 No Thinkpad X31 PASS PASS ext3 No Thinkpad X40 PASS PASS ext3 No No Thinkpad X60 PASS PASS ext4 No No Thinkpad X61 PASS PASS ext3 Factory Vista repair/rescue, WinXP Thinkpad X61T UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Thinkpad X61s PASS UNTESTED ext4 Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04 No Thinkpad X300 PASS PASS ext4 No No Thinkpad Z61m PASS PASS ext3 No LVM Toshiba A215-S4697 PASS PASS ext4 No No Toshiba L40-14G PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty and Vista Toshiba nb100-12a PASS PASS ext4 karmic+xp No Toshiba NB205-N210 PASS PASS ext3 Jaunty, Karmic, & XP No Toshiba p10-832 PASS PASS ext4 No No Toshiba Portege M400 PASS PASS ext4 No Toshiba Portege R600 UNTESTED PASS ext3 Jaunty and Windows XP No Toshiba Satellite 2455-S305 PASS PASS ext3 No No Toshiba Satellite M60-126 PASS PASS ext3 Windows XP, Karmic No Toshiba U200 PASS PASS ext3 Windows XP No Toshiba U400 PASS PASS ext3 (ext2 for /boot) Windows Vista No Toshiba Tecra A9 Tecra A9 PASS PASS reiserfs Yes (Jaunty+Vista)) No Toshiba Tecra M7 PASS PASS ext4 Windows 7 and Jaunty No PASS PASS ext2 No PASS PASS ext3 Vista UNTESTED PASS ext3 No Yes UNTESTED PASS for Karmic (both), but FAIL for WinXP (booting starts but crashes after 1 second) ext4 Windows XP 32 bit (disk1), Karmic 64 bit (disk2), Karmic 32 bit (disk3) NO PASS PASS jfs No PASS PASS reiserfs No PASS PASS xfs No PASS PASS ext4 No UNTESTED PASS ext3 No No VirtualBox 64 bit PASS PASS ext4 No No VMWare ESX 3.5 PASS PASS ext3 No root on LVM VMWare ESXi 3.5 PASS PASS ext3 No no VMWare ESXi 4.0 PASS PASS ext3 No no VMWare Fusion 2.0.4 PASS PASS ext4 No 21 No VMWare Workstation 6.5 UNTESTED PASS ext3 No XBook Eruptio DL70 (Compal) PASS PASS ext4 No No Xps1710 PASS UNTESTED ext4 No Zepto Znote 6214W PASS PASS ext4 XP, Win 7 RC No
(AlexeyBalmashnov) Shall there be note on how to put into table Do-It-Yourself system? Like, name it "DIY, MB Producer, MB Model" (Example: DIY Intel DG965WH); Since MB seems to be the most relevant piece of information here? (Tim Miller Dyck) As of the grub2 package in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 (1.96+20090725-1ubuntu2), Grub2 does not support booting from software RAID devices with metadata 1.0 or later superblocks. Only the default metadata 0.9 works (see http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-raid@vger.kernel.org/msg09618.html). CategoryBootAndPartition CategoryHardware CategoryBootAndPartition CategoryBootAndPartition CategoryLaptop Screen drawing UNUSABLY slow (NV8600M GT). 2secs for scrolling cmdline. GRUB_TERMINAL=console fixes it (1) not really a problem because of refit we only need to boot linux (2) Also tested native efi using refit to load grub.efi. followed the instructions in the grub2 wiki under testingOnEfi and testingOnMacbook. Works great, although you need to put grub on the osx partition for it to work. (3) Karmic, XP, Hardy on HD0, Karmic, NetBSD on hd1, GRUB on HD0 and HD1. Using GRUB on HD1 (BIOS boot from HD1), NetBSD must be specified as on HD0 or boot fails whether using chainloader (expected) or multiboot (not expected by me at least). It seems only the linux command munges the HD order, though it's very thinly documented. (4) In both cases (chainloaded or native, GRUB 2 menu loads, but it's impossible to select which menu entry to boot. Cursor is stuck, can't be moved across the entries (5) Needed to use "sudo grub-install /dev/sdb" to preventLP #385021 (6) after booting an Ubuntu CD, selecting "Boot from first hard drive", then going to rescue mode and running "grub-install /dev/sdb" this works again (7) Using Karmic + Vista (8) Grub2 couldn't figure out how to boot OSX86, and os-prober failed to detect opensolaris (9 10) Inadvertantly, the original groot was a chainloaded partition, but the upgrade script didn't honor that (11 12) but console scrolling is very slow - GPU is a Mobility Radeon HD 3650 (13) heavily modified Grub2, recently synced with 1.96+20090725-1ubuntu1, works flawlessly; console scrolling is very slow on 1280*800 and higher (14) Upgraded from Jaunty without having to change «root» to «uuid» as per the instructions above. Edited GRUB2 menu (removed superfluous entries) after upgrading by following instructions in the GRUB2 Wiki. (15 16) installed on partition boot sector, chainloaded from LILO (boot files not on LVM for this test.) One entry has kernel command line extracted incorrectly from lilo.conf: LP: #392315, otherwise PASS. (17) LP: #392315, again, otherwise OK, boot files on LVM this time (18) Booting with standalone Grub Legacy fails, hence chainloading also fails (19) After fresh install the entry for Windows XP wasn't displayed (also the one for the vista installation that comes with the laptop). However, after running sudo update-grub2 the entries showed on the next reboot. See LP: #402795 for more details. (20) See footnote for ATX QDI KinetZ. (21) Only worked with Karmic's grub2 (becuase of lack of devicemap in jaunty), and I had to put in the 'devicemap' command, it wasn't done by os-prober (23) Using a normal intrepid install and thus grub-legacy i used to be able to boot into the same filesytem natively and in vmware fusion on my macbook. However with grub2 installed it cannot find its config or modules either in vmware or native depending in wich environment dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc was runned last. So I can now boot only one of the two. (24)root xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
uuid xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
sudo upgrade-from-grub-legacy
User Errors
$sudo fdisk -l
$sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
$sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$sudo mount --bind /dev/ /mnt/dev
$sudo chroot /mnt
$sudo grub-install /dev/sda
$sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
Alternative Test
bunzip2 bootable-grub2-2.5GB.img.bz2
sudo dd if=bootable-grub2-2.5GB.img of=/dev/sdz
WARNING: Make sure you are writing to the correct block device before proceeding! Editing
nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg ### Do not edit directly. See /etc/grub.d/
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