The idea is that Linux OS have not native bootloader to load kernel. Usually this bootloader resides in the beginning of partition before filesystem actually starts. That is why one should use external boorloader (LILO, GRUB, ISOLINUX, etc) to load Linux kernel. This bootloader can reside either in MBR or in partition. If you rewrite GRUB resided in MBR with bootman, there is no more possibility to boot Linux kernel as bootman can’t load linux image into memory. All it can is to transfer the control to partition bootloader.
So if you want to be able to boot Linux with bootman, you should do 2 things:
Install GRUB in partition, not in MBR
Install bootman in MBR
After it, booting Linux will follow the steps:
bootman transfers control to partition bootloader of Linux partition (which is GRUB)
[quote=alpopa]The idea is that Linux OS have not native bootloader to load kernel. Usually this bootloader resides in the beginning of partition before filesystem actually starts. That is why one should use external boorloader (LILO, GRUB, ISOLINUX, etc) to load Linux kernel. This bootloader can reside either in MBR or in partition. If you rewrite GRUB resided in MBR with bootman, there is no more possibility to boot Linux kernel as bootman can’t load linux image into memory. All it can is to transfer the control to partition bootloader.
So if you want to be able to boot Linux with bootman, you should do 2 things:
Install GRUB in partition, not in MBR
Install bootman in MBR
After it, booting Linux will follow the steps:
bootman transfers control to partition bootloader of Linux partition (which is GRUB)
GRUB loads Linux kernel and all the OS.[/quote]
So in order to do this I must:
Uninstall GRUB.
Make a new partition in Ubuntu.
Uninstall GRUB.
Reinstall GRUB, this time on the Ubuntu partition.
I hate GRUB, compared to good old easy GUI bootman. For a linux & Haiku system its easiest to put GRUB in the root partition of the linux install, not the MBR. Then run bootman, it will see that linux is bootable (since you put GRUB where it belongs in the linux root partition) and just put an ‘X’ next to the name of any OS’s you want bootman to offer you when you boot up. If GRUB was easy, I’d reccomend it to handle all the job. Bootman is way easier.
Well, I already have Ubuntu on my hard drive (It is on the entire drive) and I am not interested in wiping it. I would like the preserve this data. Is this the only way I can do it?
NB : Grub should never be installed in the MBR as it installs a non-standard boot code (whose role is to load the active partition), so a maintenance tool could overwrite it and crash your system. (that’s also the reason why I do not use Bootman).
Installing GRUB in a partition is much more cleaner!