Bug 5286

Summary: Installer needs a Grub detection process added
Product: Mageia Reporter: jon scsi <scsijon>
Component: InstallerAssignee: Thierry Vignaud <thierry.vignaud>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX QA Contact:
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: Normal CC: mageia
Version: Cauldron   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: i586   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: drakx-installer-stage2 CVE:
Status comment:

Description jon scsi 2012-04-08 14:04:23 CEST 
This is an outcome related to problem 5245

Description of problem:
Currently the install process expects to add it's grub bootloader stage in ALL cases.
However in quite a number of senarios, trial installs of Mageia would occur on a workstation where linux and grub or it's equivalent is already installed!

What is needed is an automatic check for the existance of a pre-existing grub installation.
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Starting from that point:-

If there is one found:

(1)It is displayed in a read-only mode and a check question as to if it is the correct grub file.

If the answer is yes, the install should not attempt to install it's own. My best sugestion for ease of additional complexity would be to provide a text file containing what needs to be added to that existing file to allow Mageia on it's assigned partition at a suitablly notified location. Alternately a user friendly editor (like geany)could be opened containing both the mageia install's 'Menu.1st' and the found 'menu.1st' to allow the person installing to cut and paste the component lines across. This would end the grub bootloader step.

(2)If it is not the correct file, a further search on additional partitions, and if another is found we loop back to (1) else (3).

(3)If none or no other is identified:

A question is asked 'if a grub like menu is already installed on this workstation'. This is needed as there are a number of alternates to 'grub' that could be installed.

If the answer is yes, then notice of what is expected under grub (such as the text file above) is made available and where it can be found. This would end the grub bootloader step.

If the answer is no, then a grub bootloader step should proceed before continuing.
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I believe this would be the simplest scripting way of adding the required steps.

I spent a good hour sorting out my system after installing Mageia2 because of it's insistance of installing it's own grub. I was less than pleased!
Comment 1 Manuel Hiebel 2012-04-09 00:41:12 CEST 
what you want is not in the summary step ? https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Errata#Grub_installation
Comment 2 jon scsi 2012-04-09 02:04:21 CEST 
no, I could not find any way of proceeding /completing the install without letting it install it's own grub and realligning the mbr to it! I did try!

And with grub, grub2, grub-4-dos, lilo, graphical grub, and a few others out there nowadays...this does need allowing for.
Manuel Hiebel 2012-04-09 13:57:41 CEST

Assignee: bugsquad => thierry.vignaud
Source RPM: (none) => drakx-installer-stage2

Comment 3 Thierry Vignaud 2012-04-10 11:21:03 CEST 
You can choose to install grub on MBR or on a partition in the summary.
As for auto adding a chain loader entry in other OSes's grub.conf, I won't do it, it's too error prone, especially if partitions are renumbered, also not all distro grubs have the same patches and handle the same keywords.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX

Comment 4 jon scsi 2012-04-17 01:09:14 CEST 
I didn't ask for that, 
what I wanted was that your system didn't insist that grub must be installed for the install program to proceed, 

And that in that specific case it provided a text file containing what would be needed to be manually added later to the users own menu.1st file for mageia to run (ie the content of the menu.1st you would use).

What I want is to have the right not to be forced to re-install grub on a system that already has a working grub!

Status: RESOLVED => REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX => (none)

Comment 5 Sander Lepik 2012-04-17 08:58:26 CEST 
You can do that. Install grub at the start of Mageia's / partition. You don't have to install it into MBR. And when it's installed you can check the menu.lst file to find the lines you need to add into your already installed grub.

Status: REOPENED => RESOLVED
CC: (none) => sander.lepik
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX