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2 <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
8 <sect1 id="ch-bootable-grub" role="wrap">
9 <?dbhtml filename="grub.html"?>
11 <sect1info condition="script">
12 <productname>grub</productname>
13 <productnumber>&grub-version;</productnumber>
14 <address>&grub-url;</address>
17 <title>Using GRUB to Set Up the Boot Process</title>
20 <title>Introduction</title>
22 <warning><para>Configuring GRUB incorrectly can render your system
23 inoperable without an alternate boot device such as a CD-ROM. This
24 section is not required to boot your LFS system. You may just
25 want to modify your current boot loader, e.g. Grub-Legacy, GRUB2, or
26 LILO.</para></warning>
29 <para> Ensure that an emergency boot disk is ready to <quote>rescue</quote>
30 the computer if the computer becomes unusable (un-bootable). If you do not
31 already have a boot device, you can create one. In order for the procedure
32 below to work, you need to jump ahead to BLFS and install
33 <userinput>xorriso</userinput> from the <ulink
34 url="&blfs-book;multimedia/libisoburn.html">
35 libisoburn</ulink> package.</para>
37 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cd /tmp
38 grub-mkrescue --output=grub-img.iso
39 xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/cdrw blank=as_needed grub-img.iso</userinput></screen>
41 <note><para>Most newer systems now come with system firmware that is in
42 UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) mode by default. To boot LFS
43 on these systems using the instructions here, the UEFI Mode and Secure Boot
44 capabilities need to be turned off. There are ways to boot with these
45 capabilities still enabled, but then are not covered here. For details,
47 url="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/lfs-uefi.txt">
48 the lfs-uefi.txt hint</ulink> at
49 http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/lfs-uefi.txt.</para></note>
54 <title>GRUB Naming Conventions</title>
56 <para>GRUB uses its own naming structure for drives and partitions in
57 the form of <emphasis>(hdn,m)</emphasis>, where <emphasis>n</emphasis>
58 is the hard drive number and <emphasis>m</emphasis> is the partition
59 number. The hard drive number starts from zero, but the partition number
60 starts from one for normal partitions and five for extended partitions.
61 Note that this is different from earlier versions where
62 both numbers started from zero. For example, partition <filename
63 class="partition">sda1</filename> is <emphasis>(hd0,1)</emphasis> to
64 GRUB and <filename class="partition">sdb3</filename> is
65 <emphasis>(hd1,3)</emphasis>. In contrast to Linux, GRUB does not
66 consider CD-ROM drives to be hard drives. For example, if using a CD
67 on <filename class="partition">hdb</filename> and a second hard drive
68 on <filename class="partition">hdc</filename>, that second hard drive
69 would still be <emphasis>(hd1)</emphasis>.</para>
74 <title>Setting Up the Configuration</title>
76 <para>GRUB works by writing data to the first physical track of the
77 hard disk. This area is not part of any file system. The programs
78 there access GRUB modules in the boot partition. The default location
79 is /boot/grub/.</para>
81 <para>The location of the boot partition is a choice of the user that
82 affects the configuration. One recommendation is to have a separate small
83 (suggested size is 100 MB) partition just for boot information. That way
84 each build, whether LFS or some commercial distro, can access the same boot
85 files and access can be made from any booted system. If you choose to do
86 this, you will need to mount the separate partition, move all files in the
87 current <filename class="directory">/boot</filename> directory (e.g. the
88 linux kernel you just built in the previous section) to the new partition.
89 You will then need to unmount the partition and remount it as <filename
90 class="directory">/boot</filename>. If you do this, be sure to update
91 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>.</para>
93 <para>Using the current lfs partition will also work, but configuration
94 for multiple systems is more difficult.</para>
96 <para>Using the above information, determine the appropriate
97 designator for the root partition (or boot partition, if a separate
98 one is used). For the following example, it is assumed that the root
99 (or separate boot) partition is <filename
100 class="partition">sda2</filename>.</para>
102 <para>Install the GRUB files into <filename
103 class="directory">/boot/grub</filename> and set up the boot track:</para>
106 <para>The following command will overwrite the current boot loader. Do not
107 run the command if this is not desired, for example, if using a third party
108 boot manager to manage the Master Boot Record (MBR).</para>
111 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>grub-install /dev/sda</userinput></screen>
113 <!-- This does not seem to be true any more
114 <note><para><application>grub-install</application> is a script and calls another
115 program, grub-probe, that may fail with a message "cannot stat `/dev/root'".
116 If so, create a temporary symbolic link from your root partition to /dev/root:</para>
118 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>ln -sv /dev/sda2 /dev/root</userinput></screen>
120 <para>The symbolic link will only be present until the system is rebooted.
121 The link is only needed for the installation procedure.
126 <sect2 id="grub-cfg">
127 <title>Creating the GRUB Configuration File</title>
129 <para>Generate <filename>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</filename>:</para>
131 <screen revision="sysv"><userinput>cat > /boot/grub/grub.cfg << "EOF"
132 <literal># Begin /boot/grub/grub.cfg
139 menuentry "GNU/Linux, Linux &linux-version;-lfs-&version;" {
140 linux /boot/vmlinuz-&linux-version;-lfs-&version; root=/dev/sda2 ro
142 EOF</userinput></screen>
144 <screen revision="systemd"><userinput>cat > /boot/grub/grub.cfg << "EOF"
145 <literal># Begin /boot/grub/grub.cfg
152 menuentry "GNU/Linux, Linux &linux-version;-lfs-&versiond;" {
153 linux /boot/vmlinuz-&linux-version;-lfs-&versiond; root=/dev/sda2 ro
155 EOF</userinput></screen>
158 <note><para>From <application>GRUB</application>'s perspective, the
159 kernel files are relative to the partition used. If you
160 used a separate /boot partition, remove /boot from the above
161 <emphasis>linux</emphasis> line. You will also need to change the
162 <emphasis>set root</emphasis> line to point to the boot partition.
165 <para>GRUB is an extremely powerful program and it provides a tremendous
166 number of options for booting from a wide variety of devices, operating
167 systems, and partition types. There are also many options for customization
168 such as graphical splash screens, playing sounds, mouse input, etc. The
169 details of these options are beyond the scope of this introduction.</para>
171 <caution><para>There is a command, <application>grub-mkconfig</application>, that
172 can write a configuration file automatically. It uses a set of scripts in
173 /etc/grub.d/ and will destroy any customizations that you make. These scripts
174 are designed primarily for non-source distributions and are not recommended for
175 LFS. If you install a commercial Linux distribution, there is a good chance
176 that this program will be run. Be sure to back up your grub.cfg file.</para></caution>