Pascal Hambourg composed on 2017-12-03 10:49 (UTC+0100): > Felix Miata composed: ... > So I guess that the OP means that the core image of GRUB is in sda1, and > the boot image of GRUB is in the MBR of sda.
Based on OP's response to https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/11/msg00563.html in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/11/msg00935.html I'm pretty sure that was not OP's intent, i.e., none of Grub at all in MBR. ... >> The option the OP chose is to intervene ab initio. When Grub is installed to >> an >> MBR primary partition, and the MBR contains legacy boot code, and a boot >> flag is >> appropriately set, and the same policy is maintained, a subsequent >> installation >> makes no attempt to usurp control from the first. > That does not match my experience. A subsequent installation does not > care about what kind of boot code is in the MBR nor whether a boot flag > is set.... Grub does not care about boot flags, but when depending on legacy (neutral[1]) MBR code to locate the partition from which to boot, as was the apparent plan by the OP, it's crucial. The installers of most Linux distros default to installing Grub to the MBR. Some make it difficult to determine whether any other option even exists. It's been several months since I last installed Stretch. I don't remember how it presents bootloader installation location, or more importantly, if when partition is selected on a device with no installed operating systems, a separate action is required to ensure the MBR contains any boot code at all. [1] <https://old-en.opensuse.org/Bugs/grub#How_does_a_PC_boot_.2F_How_can_I_set_up_a_working_GRUB.3F> -- "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Whatever else you get, get wisdom." Proverbs 4:7 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
