On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 09:34:56 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 3:33 AM Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Wed 20 Jan 2021 at 20:31:53 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > menuentry "debian-10-iso" {
> > > set isofile="/USER/iso/debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso"
> > > loopback loop (hd0,gptNN)$isofile
> > > linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz boot=install.amd
> > > iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
> > > initrd (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz
> > > }
> >
> > This technique is doomed to failure. debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
> > needs to be mounted when it is found. However, the installer's initrd
> > does not contain a loop module, so this is not possible.
> >
> > David Wright's advice to use the hd-media kernel and initrd is your way
> > forward. The simplest GRUB stanza possible is
> >
> > menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> > linux /boot/vmlinuz
> > initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> > }
> >
> > --
> > Brian.
> >
> >
> Brian, thanks so much for your advice. Thank you also Felix, David, and
> Bastien --- i need to study what you have all written.
>
> However, Brian's final stanza is so simple that i can ask a question about
> it immediately.
>
> And that is: how can grub2 or any other software know what partition
> '/boot' refers to?
You said originally:
> I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it
I assummed that that this was the only partition and that vmlinuz and
initrd.gz would go in /boot. How many partitions do you have?
Thanks Brian for your mail.
I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the machine, or that there was only one partition.
There are 30 partitions, although not all of them have an OS on them; i have a partition for users so that when i update the box with a new OS, i can have access to all the previous user accounts. That's what i intend to do this time as well.
I haven't put a new OS on the box in the last 5 years, but i would like to update it to debian 10 now; my general procedure in such cases is to add a new partition for the OS, but not discard what i have already installed. The only disadvantage to this is that operations that scan the entire disk looking for OSes take longer.
The challenges i face this time are that the CD is not available, so that everything has to be done through the hd. Further, i only have access to the bios with great difficulty. If i could get into the bios, i could change the boot order, and possibly boot from usb. However, it is very difficult to interrupt the boot process successfully (by pressing F2), because it is so fast. (I could conceivably even get a usb
But the hd is big, and i can make more partitions as needed and populate them as desired.
Thanks again everybody for your help!
dan
> So i presume that in this very very short stanza you provide, there will
> also have to be a search line like David has (search --no-floppy ......) to
> identify just where '/boot' is (???).
With more than one partition: David's suggestion is more or less
obligatory.
--
Brian.