Automatic GRUB installation only if GRUB isn't already installed

[Marius Gedminas]

On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 10:58:09PM +0800, Wenzhuo Zhang wrote:
> Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 03:08:00PM +0200, Mgr. Peter Tuharsky wrote:
> >> Besides, Microsoft is doing the same and I don't think anybody likes 
> >> that ;o)
> > 
> > They do this for the same reason: most users don't know or care what a boot
> > loader is, and would be confused by the question.
> > 
> > The solution that Colin and I agreed on is to provide an advanced options
> > button at an appropriate place in the installer to allow the user to change
> > this behaviour.
> 
> That will be nice! Another well-thought idea is to backup the MBR 
> somewhere before overwriting it. Two versions of the MBR can be backed 
> up: the original version before installing Ubuntu, and the version after
> editing the partition.

What usually worked well for me is to install GRUB/LILO into the boot
sector of my linux partition, and mark that partition bootable.  This
way you leave the MBR untouched, and if something breaks, you can make
a different partition bootable with fdisk.

This does not work, of course, when the MBR is empty.

Marius Gedminas
-- 
HOST SYSTEM NOT RESPONDING, PROBABLY DOWN. DO YOU WANT TO WAIT? (Y/N)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/attachments/20060822/4fb06c02/attachment.pgp