[OpenIndiana-discuss] OI GRUB and Linux LVM (dualboot) support

[Jim Klimov]

Hello all,

   I'm trying to set up dual-boot with OI 151a5 and a Linux
(Fedora 17) on my laptop, and I'm not sure if the two OSes'
bootloaders very much compatible. In particular, chainloading
from OI GRUB1 into Linux GRUB2 partition yields an error about
something "not executable". I can't yet tell if the linux part
was mis-installed or if GRUB1 can somehow refuse to use the
partition with installed GRUB2, or in particular if it barfs
at the LVM table (instead of a partition being an FS), or at
the ext4....

   So some questions arose:
1) Did Solaris GRUB "0.97" split off the upstream GNU GRUB
and not integrate any later changes from upstream (such as,
maybe, the LVM or ext4 support)?

2) If somebody on the list dual-boots similarly - are there
specific hacks (i.e. keep the linux /boot as a separate FAT
partition or first volume in a group, something like that)?

3) Can installgrub (OI) correctly install the stages for
Linux grub2? What and where should be placed then? :)

---

4) On a side note, I miss a simple tool like linux fdisk
to change "partition type" bytes on existing partitions,
and this is needed sometimes. OI grub refused to do that,
at least from the running OS; and (g)parted seems to not
have this feature or have it named inappropriately :(
I ended up dd'ing the byte value into the needed location ;)

Thanks,
//Jim