01-17-2016, 02:54 PM
Thanks gold_finger. That gives me a lot to work on.....
I was reflecting on all of this overnight. Remember I'm still new to all this. Taking a step back, I wonder whether the fact that I'm using EasyBCD, and a laptop that still runs Win7, might make a difference to what I do as opposed to how austin.texas and you are doing this.
I am assuming that basically you are both running computers with Linux OSs. So trying to analyse, or visualise, what happens, it would I guess go like this:
You will have a Grub bootloader from one of your distros in the "boot" sector (/dev/sda?) of your drive. It will see its own OS. And as you add a second and a third distro, that Grub will update (automatically or when you copy-and-paste an additional menu-entry and run sudo grub-update) to include and list the additional OSs. And that grub will then boot whichever of the listed OSs you select. So, if you like, the single Grub in the boot sector is in effect the "lead" bootloader and can, and does, boot any of the OSs it has in its boot menu. Booting is a one-stage process.
Now, my situation is a bit different.
I have Win7 on my laptop. I have the Windows bootloader in the MBR. I have EasyBCD installed as a programme in Win7.
The idea behind EasyBCD is that you then install into separate partitions your additional or alternative OSs (Linux, or other Windows or Mac if you wish!), with each one's bootloader/grub also in the same partition as its OS. The Windows7 bootloader remains untouched in the MBR.
Then...... you put entries into the Easy BCD menu that tell it what the other OSs are, and which partition each one is on. EasyBCD evidently adds these, first, to Windows own bootloader in the MBR. And by some alchemy, it also apparently tells the Windows bootloader that - if a Linux OS is selected - it has to hand on the booting task to the relevant Grub in whatever partition it is located.
So booting via EasyBCD is a two-stage process. The Windows bootloader hands on to whichever - separate - grub belongs to the Linux OS you want to boot.
So far so good. It works, when you have added one Linux OS (as I did with Mint, putting it and its grub into /dev/sda6). The EasyBCD and Windows bootloader pass the task on to the Mint grub - which lists only Mint. And Mint boots up.
The problem arose when I added a second Linux OS (Linux Lite). I added it to EasyBCD's menu and entered the location of this second OS and its grub (they are in /dev/sda7). EasyBCD added it to the Windows bootloader. But EasyBCD, working via the Windows bootloader, can apparently only see, or cope with, one instance of Grub2. So even though it's been told that LL and its grub are on /dev/sda7, when asked to boot to it, it brings up instead Mint's Grub which is on dev/sda6 (and does not - yet - have LL in it).
All that is background. My worry is that if I delete Mint's grub packages, the EasyBCD and Windows bootloader won't be able to boot Mint any longer because Mint's grub is gone ....... and I am not wholly sure that they will "know", or be able to search for, the LL grub instead and boot up LL (and/or Mint, which we know is listed within the LL grub).
Anyway, I think the next steps are (a) to copy and paste the existing failed or syntax-error cfg.new file up for others to see and to enable some study and troubleshooting to be done; and (b) to have another go at the austin.texas copy-and-paste route of inserting LL into Mint's boot menu, and see if I can do so without getting the syntax-error.
On we go. It's proving a bit of a long haul, so thanks very much to those who are watching over me on this!
I was reflecting on all of this overnight. Remember I'm still new to all this. Taking a step back, I wonder whether the fact that I'm using EasyBCD, and a laptop that still runs Win7, might make a difference to what I do as opposed to how austin.texas and you are doing this.
I am assuming that basically you are both running computers with Linux OSs. So trying to analyse, or visualise, what happens, it would I guess go like this:
You will have a Grub bootloader from one of your distros in the "boot" sector (/dev/sda?) of your drive. It will see its own OS. And as you add a second and a third distro, that Grub will update (automatically or when you copy-and-paste an additional menu-entry and run sudo grub-update) to include and list the additional OSs. And that grub will then boot whichever of the listed OSs you select. So, if you like, the single Grub in the boot sector is in effect the "lead" bootloader and can, and does, boot any of the OSs it has in its boot menu. Booting is a one-stage process.
Now, my situation is a bit different.
I have Win7 on my laptop. I have the Windows bootloader in the MBR. I have EasyBCD installed as a programme in Win7.
The idea behind EasyBCD is that you then install into separate partitions your additional or alternative OSs (Linux, or other Windows or Mac if you wish!), with each one's bootloader/grub also in the same partition as its OS. The Windows7 bootloader remains untouched in the MBR.
Then...... you put entries into the Easy BCD menu that tell it what the other OSs are, and which partition each one is on. EasyBCD evidently adds these, first, to Windows own bootloader in the MBR. And by some alchemy, it also apparently tells the Windows bootloader that - if a Linux OS is selected - it has to hand on the booting task to the relevant Grub in whatever partition it is located.
So booting via EasyBCD is a two-stage process. The Windows bootloader hands on to whichever - separate - grub belongs to the Linux OS you want to boot.
So far so good. It works, when you have added one Linux OS (as I did with Mint, putting it and its grub into /dev/sda6). The EasyBCD and Windows bootloader pass the task on to the Mint grub - which lists only Mint. And Mint boots up.
The problem arose when I added a second Linux OS (Linux Lite). I added it to EasyBCD's menu and entered the location of this second OS and its grub (they are in /dev/sda7). EasyBCD added it to the Windows bootloader. But EasyBCD, working via the Windows bootloader, can apparently only see, or cope with, one instance of Grub2. So even though it's been told that LL and its grub are on /dev/sda7, when asked to boot to it, it brings up instead Mint's Grub which is on dev/sda6 (and does not - yet - have LL in it).
All that is background. My worry is that if I delete Mint's grub packages, the EasyBCD and Windows bootloader won't be able to boot Mint any longer because Mint's grub is gone ....... and I am not wholly sure that they will "know", or be able to search for, the LL grub instead and boot up LL (and/or Mint, which we know is listed within the LL grub).
Anyway, I think the next steps are (a) to copy and paste the existing failed or syntax-error cfg.new file up for others to see and to enable some study and troubleshooting to be done; and (b) to have another go at the austin.texas copy-and-paste route of inserting LL into Mint's boot menu, and see if I can do so without getting the syntax-error.
On we go. It's proving a bit of a long haul, so thanks very much to those who are watching over me on this!