...making Linux just a little more fun!
Dr. Parthasarathy S [drpartha at gmail.com]
I often experiment with multiple distros (for learning/teaching value), by installing them on my machine side by side. I then get to use a specific distro/kernel by selecting it through GRUB, at boot time. Is there some way to by-pass GRUB altogether and boot a specific kernel manually ?
Let me be clear, I want to bypass GRUB and choose the kernel/distro manually. It is not about replacing the sick GRUB by a healthy GRUB.
I would appreciate any clue or pointer.
Thank you,
partha
-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. S. Parthasarathy | mailto:drpartha at gmail.com Algologic Research & Solutions | 78 Sancharpuri Colony | Bowenpally P.O | Phone: + 91 - 40 - 2775 1650 Secunderabad 500 011 - INDIA | WWW-URL: http://algolog.tripod.com/nupartha.htm GPG Public key :: http://algolog.tripod.com/publikey.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil Youngman [ny at youngman.org.uk]
On Friday 10 Dec 2010 13:46:43 Dr. Parthasarathy S wrote:
> I often experiment with multiple distros (for learning/teaching value), by > installing them on my machine side by side. I then get to use a > specific distro/kernel by selecting it through GRUB, at boot time. Is there > some way to by-pass GRUB altogether and boot a specific kernel > manually ? > > Let me be clear, I want to bypass GRUB and choose the kernel/distro > manually. It is not about replacing the sick GRUB by a healthy GRUB. > > I would appreciate any clue or pointer.
I assume by bypassing GRUB, you mean bypassing the GRUB menu. GRUB 0.9 allowed you to press 'c' (IIRC) to get a prompt where you could enter commands including selecting a kernel, setting boot parameters and telling it to boot with whatever settings you have given it. I assume GRUB2 is the same in this respect, but you would need to check that for yourself. I'm sure you can find plenty of information with Google.
HTH
Neil Youngman
Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 07:16:43PM +0530, Dr. Parthasarathy S wrote:
> I often experiment with multiple distros (for learning/teaching value), by > installing them on my machine side by side. I then get to use a > specific distro/kernel by selecting it through GRUB, at boot time. Is there > some way to by-pass GRUB altogether and boot a specific kernel > manually ?
Hi, Partha - I'm not very clear on what you're trying to do; it seems to me that you're operating from an incorrect concept. If you have multiple OSes, then you need some sort of a selection mechanism for them.
Given how little data the BIOS can work with, that first stage is pretty tiny; there's really nothing there that's optional, or that can be stripped out. In other words, you can have a single-boot system (MBR in the first sector passing control to the OS-specific boot record elsewhere) or a multi-boot system (IPL and partition table in the first sector, second-stage "boot manager" that grabs the boot data from the bootable partitions and passes control to the one you choose.) As a result, there's no way to "just" boot one of a list of OSes without having everything set up the second way.
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *
Dr. Parthasarathy S [drpartha at gmail.com]
I see your point.
Thank you,
partha
On 13/12/2010, Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 07:16:43PM +0530, Dr. Parthasarathy S wrote: >> I often experiment with multiple distros (for learning/teaching value), by >> installing them on my machine side by side. I then get to use a >> specific distro/kernel by selecting it through GRUB, at boot time. Is >> there >> some way to by-pass GRUB altogether and boot a specific kernel >> manually ? > > Hi, Partha - I'm not very clear on what you're trying to do; it seems to > me that you're operating from an incorrect concept. If you have multiple > OSes, then you need some sort of a selection mechanism for them. > > Given how little data the BIOS can work with, that first stage is pretty > tiny; there's really nothing there that's optional, or that can be > stripped out. In other words, you can have a single-boot system (MBR in > the first sector passing control to the OS-specific boot record > elsewhere) or a multi-boot system (IPL and partition table in the first > sector, second-stage "boot manager" that grabs the boot data from the > bootable partitions and passes control to the one you choose.) As a > result, there's no way to "just" boot one of a list of OSes without > having everything set up the second way. > > > -- > * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET * > > TAG mailing list > TAG at lists.linuxgazette.net > http://lists.linuxgazette.net/listinfo.cgi/tag-linuxgazette.net >
-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. S. Parthasarathy | mailto:drpartha at gmail.com Algologic Research & Solutions | 78 Sancharpuri Colony | Bowenpally P.O | Phone: + 91 - 40 - 2775 1650 Secunderabad 500 011 - INDIA | WWW-URL: http://algolog.tripod.com/nupartha.htm GPG Public key :: http://algolog.tripod.com/publikey.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raj Shekhar [rajlist2 at rajshekhar.net]
In infinite wisdom Dr. Parthasarathy S said the following On 12/10/10 5:46 AM:
> I often experiment with multiple distros (for learning/teaching value), by > installing them on my machine side by side. I then get to use a > specific distro/kernel by selecting it through GRUB, at boot time. Is there > some way to by-pass GRUB altogether and boot a specific kernel > manually ?
Ted Dziuba has written steps on using chroots for trying out various distros <http://teddziuba.com/2011/01/multiple-concurrent-linux-distros.html>
If you are picky about "clean" environment, you can think of using virtual machines to try out different distros (my preferred method, because CPU power is so cheap now)