Grub, and going from dual boot, to Linux only

[T-Diddy]

Hello All:

I am contemplating taking out my Windows hard drive and making my computer completely Linux. I have two questions before I proceed though.

[1] To go to a single boot, I just have to switch my slave Linux drive to master, and remove the Windows one, correct?

[2] Will going from a dual boot, to single boot screw up GRUB?

Cheers,

t.

[kevinc]

Re: Grub, and going from dual boot, to Linux only

OK. Sounds like you want to move from Windows plus Linux to Linux only. As you have two drives there are a number of options open; RAID, LVM, dual boot Linux and many more.

The advantages of dual booting Linux is simple. You have a stable, secure, fast and reliable OS such as Kubuntu Jaunty Jackalope and at the same time you can experiment with the vast range of others such as Kubuntu Karmic Koala which is currently beta but almost ready for final release. If you choose Jaunty and Karmic, then when you feel confident that Karmic is doing well - say in November, then you can use that for your stable system and replace Jaunty with the next 10.04 alpha.

GRUB Howto http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

In installing two Linux distros for dual booting, the last one wins, when writing GRUB to MBR. Usually this isn't a problem. As some newer distros are using GRUB2 you can retain your working MBR by writing the later GRUB or GRUB2 to the / partition of your second linux distro instead of the MBR.

Partitioning guide http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090704.0

[dibl]

Re: Grub, and going from dual boot, to Linux only

[1] To go to a single boot, I just have to switch my slave Linux drive to master, and remove the Windows one, correct?

Actually, that's not necessary. What is necessary is that you set whichever drive has Grub installed to be the first (top) in the boot sequence in BIOS, and that the device designation in /boot/grub/menu.lst matches the actual drive as listed in /dev. But, see below.

[2] Will going from a dual boot, to single boot screw up GRUB?

Yep.

Follow Qqmike's Grub guide linked above, and reinstall Grub to the root (MBR) of the first drive in the BIOS boot sequence, then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to make sure it matches, regarding the drive and partition where the kernel is located.

[T-Diddy]

Re: Grub, and going from dual boot, to Linux only

Thanks for the links. And, yes, I'm getting rid of Windows. I find I rarely use it and nothing of import is on there anyways, so why keep it? Also, I think I may have somewhat of an advantage as I have one hard disk devoted to Kubuntu, and another separate disk for Windows. Hopefully that will keep things simple.

Cheers,

t.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub, and going from dual boot, to Linux only

Yep, just get rid off the XP drive, set BIOS to boot from the Kubuntu drive, then re-install GRUB to the MBR of the Kubuntu drive using that GRUB how-to linked.
Re-installing GRUB:

Do it NOW before disconnecting drives.
Boot into Kubuntu.
Konsole.
sudo grub
find out how GRUB sees your Kubuntu drive using the geometry command:
grub>geometry (hd<press the TAB key now>
See your drives hd0 and hd1
grub>geometry (hd1)
will show you partitions on hd1.
I think hd1 will be your Kubuntu drive (and hd0 your XP drive).
If so, then
grub>root (hd1,y)
grub>setup (hd1)
grub>quit
where y = your Kubuntu partition = 0, 1, 2, ..., where GRUB counts partitons starting from zero; so (hd1,0) = the first partition on the second hard drive hd1 and I think that's where your Kubuntu is?

That sets up GRUB in the MBR of hd1.
Now when you disconnect hd0 and set BIOS to boot from Kubuntu drive, you * should * have a GRUB to boot into! We'll see, huh?!

Do you have a copy of Super Grub Disk? Free, burn it to a CD. Have it handy in case you can't boot into Kubuntu. It would get you into Kubuntu where you could use the how-to to re-install GRUB. But I think what I said here will work. Try it.