bugGNU GRUB - Bugs: bug #3814, Lack of clarity in some grub docs

 
 

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bug #3814: Lack of clarity in some grub docs

Submitter:  Invalid User ID <#19537>
Submitted:  Fri 30 May 2003 02:17:41 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Documentation Severity:  Major
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  Non-software Error
Status:  None Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  None Originator Name: 
Open/Closed:  Closed Release:  None
Release:  0.93 Reproducibility:  Every Time
Planned Release:  None

Sat 15 Dec 2007 12:10:09 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Uhm lack of clarity in some bug reports :-)

Robert Millan <robertmh>
Group administrator
Sun 16 Nov 2003 03:55:31 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Oops. I made a change by accident, so I revert the previous change.

Yoshinori K. Okuji <okuji>
Group administrator
Fri 30 May 2003 02:17:41 AM UTC, original submission:  

1) section "Invoking grub-install" (info):
Why would I want to use the following option (ie. it should tell me so I can learn why, and if there is anything else it should be used for)?:

"`--grub-shell=FILE'
     Use FILE as the grub shell. You can append arbitrary options to
     FILE after the file name, like this:

          grub-install --grub-shell="grub --read-only" /dev/fd0
"

2) (various):
"the native grub environment" is not clearly defined anywhere. I originally thought it meant using grub shell to install grub. Now I think it might mean booting from a grub floppy to install grub. I'm not sure now.

3) section "Installation" enhancement (recommendation):
I have stuffed my hdd boot sector on at least one occasion. There are two ways to experiment with grub installation without installing it into the boot sector (eg. /dev/hda, /dev/sda or hd0 etc).
i) install into a partition and using existing bootloader (eg. lilo) to chainload that partition
ii) install on a floppy, and boot from that

These might seem obvious to some of us, but they might be really useful bits of information to have at the start of the Installation section in the info doc, for newbies.

4) Unclear 'installation' concept ("Installation", misc):
There are two entirely separate parts of grub installation - as the first paragraph of Installation states "First, you need to have GRUB itself properly installed on your system, ..."

Perhaps there should be a new very first para reading something like "There are two entirely different steps to grub installation - into the operating system/ distribution, and onto a drive for booting."

The second para currently reads: "To use GRUB, you need to install it on your drive."

For the newbie, the current first two paras could probably be clearer (sometimes I even have to stop and think - not a bad thing in itself though :).

Perhaps the second para could start like "To use GRUB, you need to install it on your drive - ie. into the boot sector of the drive itself, or the bootsector of a partition. For this step, grub's stage1 must be told where stage2 is installed, ie. where is grub's "root".

This, for me, would have made things quicker for me to grasp. Despite working on PCs for a decade, I've found the grub docs confusing, and hopefully these things will help the next guy.

regards
zen

Invalid User ID <#19537>

 

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    Follow 5 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2007-12-15 robertmh Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2003-11-16 okuji StatusDuplicate None
        Open/ClosedClosed None
    2003-11-16 okuji StatusNone None
        Open/ClosedOpen None

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