How to install grub from Live to HDD partition?

goldencut

Hi,
I have an older computer -Thinkpad X61s, with BIOS and MBR. I have Haiku OS installed to first partition but as it's quite buggy I want a different daily driver, hence - Solus, as I really liked what I saw running it from USB stick. I installed Solus to second partition and all went fine but I chose not to install new, Solus boot loader to disk, as I already have a boot loader (by Haiku). Now Solus on my HDD is unbootable. Is there a way to install boot loader to Solus PARTITION from Solus Live (running from USB)?

BR,
G.

Justin

Are you trying to replace Haiku with Solus?

gohlip

At liveOS

sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdx

where /dev/sdxy is solus partition and /dev/sdx is primary drive
so if solus is in /dev/sda3

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda

Any OS liveOS using grub will also work, not necessary solus
You may have to manually put in an entry for Haiku in solus grub, use chainload.

hunzel

gohlip oh God thank you a lot for this solution to my problem! I looked in all the wrong places before. But you saved me a lot of trouble now. :-)

solusjeff

gohlip I have a similar issue and I am confused with this. Should you chroot or not before grub-install? I think if you specify the boot-directory you can install grub from live media but if you are in the chroot /dev/sda is sufficient or (/boot).

gohlip

Writing separately (for clarity)

And in the event when you reboot to a grub prompt (grub> ) {that's because you may not have a grub configured in solus}

grub> set root=(hdx,y)
grub> linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdxy ro
grub> initrd /initrd.img
grub> boot

(hdx,y) being the solus partition; in above example (hd0,3) and /dev/sdxy is /dev/sda3
And in the event (unlikely) solus did not generate the symlinks (vmlinuz,initrd.img), manually enter the kernels;
first find out the kernels installed in your system.

grub> set root=(hdx,y)
grub> ls ($root)/boot

write down the kernels, continue with the kernels (use your kernels, of course)

grub> linux /boot/com.solus-project.current.5.1.7-119 root=/dev/sdxy rw
grub> initrd /boot/initrd-com.solus-project.current.5.1.7-119
grub> boot

When booted to Solus,

sudo update-grub

and manually put in the Haiku entry in /boot/grub/custom.cfg

Note (to others): above applies only to bios-legacy Solus.
Do not attempt this for uefi Solus
uefi solus use a different way/path for its kernels, namely

linux /efi/com.solus-project/kernel-com.solus-project.current.5.1.7-119
initrd /efi/com.solus-project/initrd-com.solus-project.current.5.1.7-119

goldencut

Hey, big thanks! I was off-grid for a while but now had a chance to try it and it worked. I also used tips from https://github.com/alberthdev/alberthdev-misc/wiki/Installing-GRUB2-to-a-Partition.

BR,
G.