Getting Ready For Karmic Koala – Upgrading To GRUB 2
This is a continuation of the series of article "Getting Ready For Karmic Koala". The previous articles in this series are: 1, 2, 3, 4.
You might have heard it or maybe you have not, but Karmic Koala is to have GRUB 2 by default if you did a clean install. However, if you upgrade from Jaunty, you will retain GRUB, which was used in Jaunty. So this article is to help those upgrading from Jaunty get GRUB 2 in their system.
Before we start, here are some of the improvements of GRUB 2 over GRUB:
- It can boot LiveCD iso image directly from the hard disk
- It has scripting support
- It 2 has improved splash capabilities
- It is themeable and has custom menus
Now, to get to the task of upgrading to GRUB 2 follow the steps below:
Warning: This is for Karmic. In Jaunty, you will encounter errors if you follow the following steps.
1. Open the terminal and update the repository index using the command
sudo apt-get update
2. Then run the command
sudo apt-get install grub-pc
3. A "configuring grub-pc" will come up. Select "Ok".
4. After selecting "Ok" in step 3, you will see a question, "Chainload from menu.lst?". Select "Yes". This allows the user to test GRUB 2.
5. Now there will be be an option to import sections from GRUB's menu.lst to the "Linux Command Line". Just select "Ok".
6. Reboot your system now using the command:
sudo reboot
7. In GRUB you will see an entry "Chainload into GRUB 2". Select it to see if GRUB 2 is working properly.
8. If GRUB 2 is working properly, upgrade by using the command
sudo upgrade-from-grub-legacy
GRUB 2 will then show you where it's booting from.
Warning:You have to use the spacebar to mark the choice here. DO NOT go on without doing this. It WILL result in your system showing error 15 and being unable to even show a boot menu. If you are running a dual boot system with WindowsXP or Vista, you might have to do additional fixes after upgrading to get it to work. (Thanks Sikku)
Done. You now have GRUB 2 installed.