Booting with "grubstick"

[xennex81]

It should still be possible to boot a system by writing grub-install to an usb stick, right? It there any requirement for formatting, partitioning?

I am really hoping to revert a grub install by putting the Windows MBR that existed before back to it but I'm not sure this is possible without using Windows tools.

I have a Windows 7 install DVD ready but I'd rather do it with Linux tools.

Is it (a) possible to make a bootstick that will replace GRUB on the MBR (so I can destroy the MBR all I want and be safe) and
(b) to reinstate the windows boot loader that existed prior to the Kubuntu side-install?

In this way the Kubuntu install will have been reverted except for the partitions to still exist (which is not a big thing).

[xennex81]

I am really hoping someone can help me here. My internet access is limited and I can't use that pc either but I need it to revert to Windows or at least look like it did. I can't even get the grub menu to hide even though the resulting grub.cfg had menu=hidden as the style for the menu. Still shows. Even overrode 10-header and 30-os-prober by allowing a timer of 0, etcetera. ((Grub will set the timeout to 10 if you set it to zero while having multiple partitions and it doesn't really mention it anywhere. Just overwrites the damn timer. Not sure that happened to me anywhere, it just doesn't hide the thing.))

[vinnywright]

you can use dd to copy the MBR to a file and then replace it if you kill it all in your endeavours ,,,,,,,I do not know the exact command off the top of my head but I think their is a dd tut @hear on the forum ,,,,,search it.

I find it best to use windows tools for windows stuff when possible,,,,,,,but their ar some tools on the net ,,I thing hirens boot cd has that tool

look hear http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1873884 it's ubuntu but basically the same .

VINNY

[xennex81]

I just looked at your thread. I had already found that bootrec /fixmbr should do the trick from a Windows 7 install CD. Then from Ubuntu I should only have to do grub-install /dev/sdb if sdb is the USB stick. I should have an USB stick ready in the mail. Perhaps then two commands will do the trick. Thanks for your help. I am writing quickly because Tapatalk wiped my answer after I had opened your link.

[xennex81]

My computer, sweet computer, is password protected against booting from usb stick. So I can't continue my plan. Thanks for your help. It only allows booting from DVD. So I can't boot from stick but I can boot the installed Kubuntu system and I can boot the Windows 7 rescue live CD. Not much use because I don't want to destroy my Kubuntu access just yet (or ever).

[vinnywright]

My computer, sweet computer, is password protected against booting from usb stick.

so can we assume it is not really your computer ?

VINNY

[xennex81]

We can assume it is not my computer and I don't really have authority over installing anything on the thing .

It is one of these site kiosk computers but the real authority is no where to be found and asking permission is not done cause there's no one to ask it to except higher up. I probably know much more about computers than the people who work there (I mean the IT support organization). Their computers are a nightmare and it will never be fixed. The person working for them even told me so. I have actually done them a favour except the system itself is a support nightmare without me around (Kubuntu, that is). I'm not using guest users, just a real regular user and anyone will a little knowledge can ruin that user. I'm the only one who holds the passwords. The system boots into Windows by default and it is ruined or wasted by their software. The system typically becomes unusable after one minute. The only knowledge you need to boot Ubuntu is to use the Grub menu, since grub is so weak I can't even hide the menu.

[xennex81]

I've never encountered a software so poor and so in general use as Grub.

[vinnywright]

I've never encountered a software so poor and so in general use as Grub.

? you can have grub auto boot whatever OS it is aware of ??

VINNY

[xennex81]

Sure it auto-boots currently and I've had to edit "01-header" so it won't stop autobooting on power failure. But I can't get it to hide the menu. Just yet, but I'm a bit done trying. It's supposed to hide the menu and auto-boot Windows but it won't do it.

[InsideJob]

Can't make it hide the menu when you have more than one OS installed and you can't make it show the menu when you have a custom kernel and just one OS. It ignores the configuration file completely. I thought KDE's GRUB system config utility was broken but nope, it writes the file fine. GRUB2 just stinks.

[xennex81]

Grub2 stinks like beautiful flowers rotting in heaven's delay. I wonder if someone is interested in making something better out of that rotten heap of goodness.

[vinnywright]

Grub2 works just fine for me the way I use it ,,,,,,

but for brand new hardware with UEFI instead of BIOS ,,,,,,I understand that rEFind is the way to go ,,,,,,,look to @hear https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ghlight=refind
look to post #117

VINNY

[InsideJob]

I really liked LILO back in the day (Mandriva 9.2) but looks like the guy wants someone to take over the project.

Anywho, speak of the Devil... look what's waiting to be updated this morning:

Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
efibootmgr firefox firefox-locale-en grub-common grub-efi-amd64
grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub2-common
8 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 42.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 190 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]


I'm scared mommy.... have been using "beta2" in production for over a year now. Here goes nothing. If I don't post again probably went back to Winblows 8.1

[xennex81]

I read the rEFInd post yes. Seems better than grub, but perhaps hard or not possible to tailor?

When I installed my dev server (first try) I just chose BIOS/legacy over UEFI because otherwise I would probably have landed in a world of trouble. I still don't know: there is noone who presents it like "To use UEFI, use this and that, and you're done." No one presents it in that way, probably because it can't be presented in that way. It is too overly complex for me, if even the help files are too complex to understand. The help files (including this troubleshooting thread that you linked to (Grub2 tutorial)) are so DIFFICULT.

I don't want that, you know. I want something easy. It is a freakin' boot manager. Let it be easy. Let me choose what to include and what to leave out. Let me create a presentation out of it. I want to see that boot option, I want this one to be hidden. I want a shortcut to show all the hidden ones or whatever. I want a password on the boot menu. Stuff like that. It is not possible, not readily possible, because even the default things to do are almost too difficult to conceive. Sure, we can install Grub2 on a MBR and run update-grub, but that's all we can do with it. I can't do anything else with it, or it involves editing those /etc/grub.d/0x-xxxx files. It's so darn difficult. I just can't conceive how they made it so difficult. There are no ready made tutorials that just work. The web is littered with this "Can't Hide Grub Menu" lines and questions. Usually people succeed in the end. But it makes me wonder. Who ever thought of conceiving this software? And doesn't he (I bet it is a he, but I'm not sure) -- doesn't he feel responsible? Lol. Soon Grub will be abandoned.