is it possible to install just GRUB in a PC with no linux?
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
is it possible to install just GRUB in a PC with no linux?
Hi.
My mother has a notebook with windows and it's not booting anymore. Some problem in MBR.
I have already tried all options, like /fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd.
I'd like to solve it installing GRUB, since it always recovers all my OS that are not booting anymore. The problem is that her laptop doesn't have linux installed.
Is it possible to install just GRUB without linux? How?
Hi.
My mother has a notebook with windows and it's not booting anymore. Some problem in MBR.
I have already tried all options, like /fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd.
I'd like to solve it installing GRUB, since it always recovers all my OS that are not booting anymore. The problem is that her laptop doesn't have linux installed.
Is it possible to install just GRUB without linux? How?
not trivially as grub chains on to the stage2 image which is in the /boot partition of one of the Linux systems on the machine. You can run grub-install from an installer, however that will only get you a very minimal stage1 (1.5?) shell which I don't think give you any of the good stuff you are after.
You can always create a minimal partition to store /boot. You should also be able to store it in the windows partition itself, but I never tried it personally.
For the rest, all you need to install grub is a livecd, I know there are grub versions for other oses, but know nothing about them either.
You can create a separate /boot partition as indicated above or a separate Grub partition or you can create a bootable CD as explained here (Grub Legacy):
Simplest solution is SuperGrubDisk as suggested above. You will obviously need a Linux CD or installation to get the Grub files if you try one of the two methods above. Since windows isn't booting, its boot files or something else may be corrupted and there is still no guarantee any of this will work.
Thanks for all the fast and excellent replies.
For any of the suggestions, I'll need some help.
1) About creating a minimal partition, how can I resize the existing partitions to open a space for the new linux partition? The laptop has 3 partitions: first the windows system partition (~100 MB), second the windows partition, and a data partition in the end. I'm thinking about resizing the last partition, but I just know how to do it graphically.
2) How does the super grub disk works? I burn it in a CD, boot it, and then it installs itself in my MBR? Is that it?
There are different methods and files on different windows versions. You don't indicate which windows version you have. I'd do a little more investigating before trying to resize. It sounds like you have an OEM installation with a boot partition, system partition and recovery partition but there is no way for us to know that?? The last partition is probably the recovery partition. Do you have a recovery disk? Which windows version do you have?
The supergrubdisk boots the system from CD, it doesn't install to the mbr, AFAIK.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.