From gervin at cableone.net Sun Jan 10 08:32:48 2016 From: gervin at cableone.net (Glenn / Lenny) Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2016 02:32:48 -0600 Subject: Installing Ubuntu on a partition without GRUB Message-ID: <75CC87DB5BFB4608994B80371CF0E246@LennyAcer5720> Hi, I just installed Windows 7 on a NUC PPYH, and its BIOS seems to present boot options for separate partitions. During my install of Windows 7 from a USB stick, I messed up and wound up with two partitions, and one is a bit more than enough for Ubuntu. With sighted assistance, I have found that since that there is two partitions, on boot up, I am presented with the option to choose between the two partitions. My question is, can I install Ubuntu onto that partition without it installing GRUB, since I will not need it due to the BIOS selection. Thanks. Glenn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gervin at cableone.net Sun Jan 10 19:46:51 2016 From: gervin at cableone.net (Glenn / Lenny) Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:46:51 -0600 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB Message-ID: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> Hi Again, I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up with an idea that might work. I just don't recall the installation steps to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. I suspect that my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition will be /dev/sda2. Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB onto? If so, I suspect that if I can put GRUB onto the Linux partition, that I will only be presented with GRUB when I down arrow to the second partition that my BIOS offers, and having GRUB there is no big deal. Any thoughts? Glenn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From walterorlin at gmail.com Sun Jan 10 21:26:29 2016 From: walterorlin at gmail.com (Brendan Perrine) Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:26:29 -0800 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB In-Reply-To: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> References: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> Message-ID: <20160110132629.0eb5de830750bf8eb2fbdfcf@gmail.com> On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:46:51 -0600 "Glenn / Lenny" wrote: > Hi Again, > I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up with an idea that might work. > I just don't recall the installation steps to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. > I suspect that my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition will be /dev/sda2. > Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB onto? > If so, I suspect that if I can put GRUB onto the Linux partition, that I will only be presented with GRUB when I down arrow to the second partition that my BIOS offers, and having GRUB there is no big deal. > Any thoughts? > Glenn This may limit your options if say you forget your administrative passwords as many guides suggest using grub to boot into rescue mode for that for example http://askubuntu.com/questions/24006/how-do-i-reset-a-lost-administrative-password Grub also allows you to boot to sometimes an older kernel. I don't know if your bios has this fucntionality. IF you are using the desktop installer you if you select something else in the installation process it will allow to chose where to install grub as well as many more advanced options. However you may need to know more about filesystems as some like xfs or btrfs are not likely to have been tested by the people who wrote your bios. I would likely try to stay with ext4 filesystem for doing this. As some other will likely be not tested and could posibly have problems. -- Brendan Perrine From themuso at ubuntu.com Sun Jan 10 22:11:43 2016 From: themuso at ubuntu.com (Luke Yelavich) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 09:11:43 +1100 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB In-Reply-To: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> References: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> Message-ID: <20160110221143.GA3493@buffalo> On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 06:46:51AM AEDT, Glenn / Lenny wrote: > Hi Again, > I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up with an idea that might work. > I just don't recall the installation steps to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. > I suspect that my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition will be /dev/sda2. > Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB onto? If you use the advanced partitioning method, then yes, you can choose where Grub puts its loader. Bare in mind that unless you are using an EFI based machine, your BIOS is not likely to let you select which partition to boot. It will only boot that disk, and then whatever partition is marked as active in the partition table will be booted. Luke From 0123peter at gmail.com Mon Jan 11 01:58:09 2016 From: 0123peter at gmail.com (blind Pete) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 12:58:09 +1100 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB References: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> Message-ID: Glenn / Lenny wrote: > Hi Again, > I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up > with an idea that might work. I just don't recall the installation steps > to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. I suspect that > my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition will > be /dev/sda2. Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB onto? Yes. Sensible choices are the MBR (which is not a partition at all) or the root partition of your linux installation. Remember that you *NEED* some method to tell the boot process to jump to that partition, which you will have to organize yourself - Ubuntu won't do it for you. And the Grub people are strongly opposed to installing Grub to a partition because the housekeeping processes of some filing systems "fix" things in undesirable ways. There are ways to make it work, if you want to. > If > so, I suspect that if I can put GRUB onto the Linux partition, that I will > only be presented with GRUB when I down arrow to the second partition that > my BIOS offers, and having GRUB there is no big deal. Any thoughts? Glenn Are you using BIOS? Or UEFI in legacy mode? Or UEFI as UEFI? If you are using BIOS then LiLo works well, but is no longer maintained. If you are using UEFI then rEFInd works well. These can be used instead of or as well as Grub, depending on taste. What does your firmware offer you, a list of disks, or partitions, or bootable targets? -- blind Pete Sig goes here... From 0123peter at gmail.com Mon Jan 11 02:41:27 2016 From: 0123peter at gmail.com (blind Pete) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:41:27 +1100 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB References: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> <20160110132629.0eb5de830750bf8eb2fbdfcf@gmail.com> Message-ID: Brendan Perrine wrote: > On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:46:51 -0600 > "Glenn / Lenny" wrote: > >> Hi Again, >> I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up >> with an idea that might work. I just don't recall the installation steps >> to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. I suspect that >> my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition >> will be /dev/sda2. Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB >> onto? If so, I suspect that if I can put GRUB onto the Linux partition, >> that I will only be presented with GRUB when I down arrow to the second >> partition that my BIOS offers, and having GRUB there is no big deal. Any >> thoughts? Glenn > > This may limit your options if say you forget your administrative > passwords as many guides suggest using grub to boot into rescue mode for > that for example > http://askubuntu.com/questions/24006/how-do-i-reset-a-lost-administrative-password Bootable USB drives and DVDs will allow you to get at your main installation if necessary, as long as you have not encrypted it. If you have done that then you don't need my help. > Grub also allows you to boot to sometimes an older kernel. I don't know if > your bios has this fucntionality. > > IF you are using the desktop installer you if you select something else in > the installation process it will allow to chose where to install grub as > well as many more advanced options. However you may need to know more > about filesystems as some like xfs or btrfs are not likely to have been > tested by the people who wrote your bios. I would likely try to stay with > ext4 filesystem for doing this. As some other will likely be not tested > and could posibly have problems. -- blind Pete Sig goes here... From fudge at thefudge.net Mon Jan 11 03:10:23 2016 From: fudge at thefudge.net (Rob Whyte) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 14:10:23 +1100 Subject: Installing Ubuntu without GRUB In-Reply-To: References: <948E3E3FDEF24F46870B8B767EB9E83C@LennyAcer5720> <20160110132629.0eb5de830750bf8eb2fbdfcf@gmail.com> Message-ID: <56931D1F.8090207@thefudge.net> I have not heard of a bios offering to boot partitions, only drives. What is the motherboard or bios you are using? You could re-install your windows boot loader and try to get that to boot your Linux OS instead of it is that important to you. Can you see any of the available options though, windows boot loader, Grub or the Bios boot option menu? thanks Rob On 11/01/16 13:41, blind Pete wrote: > Brendan Perrine wrote: > >> On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:46:51 -0600 >> "Glenn / Lenny" wrote: >> >>> Hi Again, >>> I have been researching this concern, and it seems to me that I came up >>> with an idea that might work. I just don't recall the installation steps >>> to know for sure if I will get my option to do this step. I suspect that >>> my Windows partition is going to be /dev/sda1 and the empty partition >>> will be /dev/sda2. Do we get the option of which partition to put GRUB >>> onto? If so, I suspect that if I can put GRUB onto the Linux partition, >>> that I will only be presented with GRUB when I down arrow to the second >>> partition that my BIOS offers, and having GRUB there is no big deal. Any >>> thoughts? Glenn >> This may limit your options if say you forget your administrative >> passwords as many guides suggest using grub to boot into rescue mode for >> that for example >> http://askubuntu.com/questions/24006/how-do-i-reset-a-lost-administrative-password > Bootable USB drives and DVDs will allow you to get at your main > installation if necessary, as long as you have not encrypted it. > If you have done that then you don't need my help. > > >> Grub also allows you to boot to sometimes an older kernel. I don't know if >> your bios has this fucntionality. >> >> IF you are using the desktop installer you if you select something else in >> the installation process it will allow to chose where to install grub as >> well as many more advanced options. However you may need to know more >> about filesystems as some like xfs or btrfs are not likely to have been >> tested by the people who wrote your bios. I would likely try to stay with >> ext4 filesystem for doing this. As some other will likely be not tested >> and could posibly have problems.