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Re: GRUB version



On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:28:32 -0600, Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote:

> Walter Hurry wrote:
>> On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:40:52 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
>> 
>>> On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:37:33 -0600, Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there a way to find out what version of grub is installed in the
>>>> MBR of a drive?
>>> "grub-install -v" will tell the installed version.
>>>
>>> Anyway... IIRC, the version is printed at the top of the boot menu.
>> 
>> The question aroused my curiosity, so I tried looking at the boot
>> sector itself:
>> 
>> $ sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=mbr_backup.bin bs=512 count=1 

(...)

>> $ file mbr_backup.bin
>> mbr_backup.bin: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1
>> version 0x3, stage2 address 0x2000, stage2 segment 0x200, GRUB version
>> 0.94; 

(...)

>> One (slightly) interesting thing is that this reports version 0.94
>> whereas the version of GRUB on the partition from where it was
>> installed claims to be 0.97.
>> 
>> 
> Precisely. I have 4 HDD's and 1 USBkey. I boot from the latter. But what
> is on the 4 disks?
>
> hugo@HDBB:/$ file mbr_sda_backup.bin
> mbr_sda_backup.bin: x86 boot sector; partition 1: ID=0x83, active,
(...)

Nothing.

> hugo@HDBB:/$ file mbr_sdb_backup.bin
> mbr_sdb_backup.bin: x86 boot sector; partition 1: ID=0x83, starthead 1,
(...)

Nothing.

> hugo@HDBB:/$ file mbr_sdc_backup.bin
> mbr_sdc_backup.bin: x86 boot sector, LInux i386 boot LOader; GRand
> Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, boot drive 0x80, stage2 address
(...)

LILO or GRUB? :-?

> file mbr_sdd_backup.bin
> mbr_sdd_backup.bin: x86 boot sector, LInux i386 boot LOader; GRand
> Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, stage2 address 0x2000, stage2

LILO or GRUB :-?

> hugo@HDBB:/$ file mbr_sde_backup.bin
> mbr_sde_backup.bin: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1
> version 0x3, stage2 address 0x2000, stage2 segment 0x200; partition 1:

And GRUB.

> Walter got a version for GRUB in the mbr, I get nothing.

Then it can be that there is no in there or that you have a different 
version (in your case, GRUB legacy) ;-)

(side note: remember that GRUB can be also installed into the first 
sector of a partition and not just into the MBR).

> IMO the man page for grub-install is wrong:
> 
> grub-install [OPTION] install_device
> 
> should say:
> 
> grub-install [OPTION] [install_device]
> 
> because 'grub-install -v' gives:
> 
> grub-install (GNU GRUB 0.97)
> 
> So if sde has 0.97 then sdc and sdd must also because they look the
> same. :-(

"grub-install -v" tells you nothing about the location of GRUB but the 
installed version of the package from the system you are currently 
running it.
 
> Too bad I did not know about GPT when I got new disks /sdc and /sdd.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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