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Can't install grub with BootICE


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#51 doveman

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Posted 22 December 2018 - 05:48 PM

Thanks to you both. That works now and boots to the Windows boot menu with the grldr entry I added. Selecting Windows 10 boots fine and msinfo32 confirms it is in Legacy mode.

 

I've created an entry in menu.lst just replacing the find and root lines with root (hd0,1) and removing the boot line from the end.

 

So now I'll copy menu.lst from (hd0,5) to (hd0,1) which will perhaps make grldr able to find it a bit quicker and keep it safe from accidental tampering/deletion.



#52 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 22 December 2018 - 06:34 PM

Yes :), since grldr looks for menu.lst *everywhere* the "earlier" partition, the sooner it will be found.

Please note how the mapping to (fd0) may (or may not since after all the \boot\BCD is also  on the hard disk partition) have a few "consequences", the matter has been discussed on the (exceptionally long) thread here:

 

http://reboot.pro/to...in-bios-to-gpt/

 

If I recall correctly the issues revolve around issues with hybernate/sleep and with update (but surely you don't want to update the Windows 10 when booted in Legacy mode, that should be only an "emergency only" kind of booting).

 

:duff:

Wonko


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#53 doveman

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Posted 23 December 2018 - 03:17 AM

I'll review that thread sometime but as you say, this legacy mode boot option is very much there just in case I ever happen to need it in an emergency, so I'm not worried if it has some issues.

 

Having deleted grldr and menu.lst from everywhere except (hd0,1) now, I can't say it's made anything noticeably quicker, I still see the default menu briefly before it finds the proper one. I guess it's just down to the strange way this BIOS operates that's causing this. It's not a problem anyway.



#54 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 23 December 2018 - 12:24 PM

I'll review that thread sometime but as you say, this legacy mode boot option is very much there just in case I ever happen to need it in an emergency, so I'm not worried if it has some issues.

 

Having deleted grldr and menu.lst from everywhere except (hd0,1) now, I can't say it's made anything noticeably quicker, I still see the default menu briefly before it finds the proper one. I guess it's just down to the strange way this BIOS operates that's causing this. It's not a problem anyway.

Yep, it depends a lot on the BIOS and the way the devices/volumes are enumerated, but as said earlier, you can edit the embedded menu.lst removing the things that you won't (ever) need, since you are using BOOTICE, it has a suitable editor built-in:

http://reboot.pro/to...otice/?p=207992

 

In a "normal" setup, where the menu.lst is besides grldr all is needed is:

title find /menu.lst

configfile /menu.lst

but I cannot say, in the specific way it is booted via UMBR if a root is established when the grldr is loaded, so you might even "further specialize it" to:

title find (hd0,1)/menu.lst

configfile (hd0,1)/menu.lst

 

:duff:

Wonko


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#55 doveman

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Posted 23 December 2018 - 02:03 PM

I edited the embedded menu to
 

configfile
default 0
timeout 1

title find (hd0,1)/menu.lst
configfile (hd0,1)/menu.lst

title commandline
commandline

title reboot
reboot

title halt
halt

but it didn't really make any difference. The main delay seems to be when the BIOS (or UMBR) is locating grldr, as that's when the screen flickers three times. After it finds it and loads the default menu, it only shows very briefly before loading menu.lst.

 

Anyway, it's not worth worrying about. Everything's working as I need it to now and I can present my brother with his birthday present. OK, his birthday was nearly four months ago but these things take time :hammer: . Thanks for your help and patience. I wish you a Happy Christmas  :newyear:



#56 steve6375

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Posted 23 December 2018 - 02:05 PM

Try commenting out the first line

configfile

this makes it look for a default \menu.lst file.

 

if you get rid of the 'title' line there will be no 1 second delay either.



#57 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 24 December 2018 - 08:50 AM

The main delay seems to be when the BIOS (or UMBR) is locating grldr, as that's when the screen flickers three times. After it finds it and loads the default menu, it only shows very briefly before loading menu.lst.

 

Anyway, it's not worth worrying about. Everything's working as I need it to now and I can present my brother with his birthday present. OK, his birthday was nearly four months ago but these things take time :hammer: . Thanks for your help and patience. I wish you a Happy Christmas  :newyear:

Yep, if the blinking/delay is when the grldr is loaded I think there is little that can be done, maybe some tricks along the "silent grub4dos" mods :unsure:

https://www.rmprepus...c-grub4dos-menu

but as you say, that is not worth worrying.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your brother (and to everyone else :))

 

:duff:

Wonko 



#58 doveman

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Posted 24 December 2018 - 03:03 PM

Actually my attempts to edit the embedded menu appear to have failed. I didn't notice at first as it only shows the menu for about 1s but now I see it's still showing the default menu. I even edited it down to just

 

configfile (hd0,1)/menu.lst

 

but still the same.

 

I double-checked every partition on the SSD (except for MSR which can't be mounted) and there's no other instances of grldr anywhere, so I wonder if the umbr code includes an embedded menu that can't be edited with BootICE?



#59 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 24 December 2018 - 04:19 PM

Actually my attempts to edit the embedded menu appear to have failed. I didn't notice at first as it only shows the menu for about 1s but now I see it's still showing the default menu. I even edited it down to just

 

configfile (hd0,1)/menu.lst

 

but still the same.

 

I double-checked every partition on the SSD (except for MSR which can't be mounted) and there's no other instances of grldr anywhere, so I wonder if the umbr code includes an embedded menu that can't be edited with BootICE?

Well, open grldr (the one linked to by UMBR) in wordpad (yes wordpad, NOT notepad) and scroll till the end of it to make sure.

 

The menu.lst is the last few bytes of the grldr file in plain text (but you need wordpad since the Linux/Unix LF is used instead if the DOS/Windows CR+LF) 

 

The UMBR code is just a teeny-tiny "launcher", it has no menu.lst (not any grub4dos commands) in it.

 

BUT you should need to re-run UMBR after having edited the grldr so that length/checksum matches (maybe it isn't needed because you are making it shorter, but you never know).

 

:duff:

Wonko


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#60 doveman

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Posted 24 December 2018 - 08:14 PM

Thanks. Re-running UMBR has fixed it and now I don't see any default menu before my menu.lst appears.

 

I checked glrdr in wordpad first and it did only show "configfile (hd0,1)/menu.lst" at the end (excuse the poor quality of this photo), so I don't know where grub/umbr was finding the default menu.

 

Attached File  IMG_20181224_191125.jpg   153.79KB   0 downloads

 

When I re-ran umbr I used the same command as before (I copied umbr to (hd0,1) this time to make it easier)

 

umbr -p=0 (hd0,1)/grldr 

 

I might be misunderstanding umbr but does that tell it to look for grldr on (hd0,0) first and then if it can't find it there, on (hd0,1)? (hd0,0) is the recovery partition and didn't have grldr or menu.lst on it so I copied them across and it's a bit quicker now, the screen only flickers once instead of 2-3 times before the menu appears. Of course I've set grldr to load menu.lst from (hd0,1) but I doubt it would be any quicker if I changed it to load it from (hd0,0), so I think we've done as much as we can (and really it's fine anyway and my brother will never notice or care about any slight delay).

 



#61 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 26 December 2018 - 10:27 AM

No, the UMBR 

-d=0 (which is implied in the command you ran since you had root on a partition of (hd0)) 

-p=0

adds a command to chainload the PBR or bootsector of the specified partition, (hd0,0) in this case, this option is used only if the grldr is not found, so - in theory - it shouldn't matter at all, it is more likely that having re-run the UMBR with the modified grldr what appears as a checksum (and the length of the file) have been corrected and thus the booting is somehow more "fluid".

 

I imagine :unsure::

1) Let's look for this offset and load this size from it and chainload the grldr = 1 blink

2) Hey, the checksum is wrong = 1 blink
3) Let me try to load nonetheless the given extent = 1 blink

 

vs:

1) Let's look for this offset and load this size from it and chainload the grldr = 1 blink

 

:duff:

Wonko



#62 doveman

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Posted 04 January 2019 - 04:26 PM

Ah I understand, it looks for grldr at the location specified by file1 (and file2 and file3 if they are specified) and if it can't find it, it falls back to trying to boot the PBR or bootsector specified by -d and -p.

You're probably right that re-running umbr corrected some sort of checksum but that still doesn't explain where it was getting the default menu from, when I'd overwritten it with my custom one in the only grldr present on the entire SSD.

We'll just have to accept that as one of those peculiar, inexplicable events though, as my brother has gratefully received his laptop now and taken it home with him to Liverpool, so my tinkering is over (well until he breaks something and asks me to Teamviewer in and fix it!)

#63 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 04 January 2019 - 07:51 PM

Ah I understand, it looks for grldr at the location specified by file1 (and file2 and file3 if they are specified) and if it can't find it, it falls back to trying to boot the PBR or bootsector specified by -d and -p.

 

Yep, though for some reasons (most probably a glitch in the matrix), seemingly only "file1" and "file 2" actually work as the PBR/bootsector specified by -d and -p goes on third entry (and the fourth is empty).

 

 

 

You're probably right that re-running umbr corrected some sort of checksum but that still doesn't explain where it was getting the default menu from, when I'd overwritten it with my custom one in the only grldr present on the entire SSD.

We'll just have to accept that as one of those peculiar, inexplicable events though, 

Yep, we could make a whole TV series on these peculiar, inexplicable events ....

 

Spoiler

 

as my brother has gratefully received his laptop now and taken it home with him to Liverpool, so my tinkering is over (well until he breaks something and asks me to Teamviewer in and fix it!)

 

I would suggest you to create and give him a bootable USB stick (or even better a bootable DVD if the laptop has the drive) for those emergencies that happen before TemViewer (or similar) can work.

 

:duff:

Wonko


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