Just to let you know where we are at in development of antiX-12.

We have some outstanding issues that prevent us from releasing even as a release candidate.

1. antiX repos break every time I add updated antiX debs. We are working on it.

2. Installing grub to root directory using gui installer gives error message. Even though the error is a sort of half-error and is 'fixed' by user then choosing no Grub option, this is unacceptable for a final release. I'm stumped as to why this is happening. One 'solution' is to only have the option of installing grub to MBR or not installing it anywhere.

3. Due to 2 above, parts of antiX-system related to grub is broken.

4. antix2usb needs fixing to run the new_usb script and take into account the new method of persistence used in antiX-12.

5. Documentation needs updating.

6. Localisation is better for many of the new changes, but needs more work.

7. probably others I have forgotten.

Now, for 95% of our user base (it seems), the above are either non-existent or irrelevant. eg Install directly to hard drive and either install grub to MBR or nowhere works 100%.
It is the details/extras that is holding us back.

Please be patient.

When I work on a bike and start it up and test it out. I know inherently right then and there if it will give trouble down the road. I won't release that bike till I am happy with it or at the least get the bike owners,"I don't care cuz I can't afford the wait". It is in my DNA to know these kind of things.

With my bikes it is a different story. I won't ride my scooters till they are 100% ready. Nothing stresses me out more than taking one of my scooters on a trip and wondering if I will be stranded on the side of the road.

You sound like a perfectionist when dealing with things you care about. I for one would not have it any other way.

Please be patient.

No problemo bro. I know how hard trouble shooting is. Though my expertise lies in a different field. Take all the time in the world as far as I care.

5. Documentation needs updating.

I'm sure some of us can lighten the load on that. My flowery prose though may be kinda unprofessional
though. I tend to type like I act in real life.

Friday Night and the self medications are flowing. __{{emoticon}}__

Anti, on 2. above,"Installing grub to root directory using gui installer gives error message." I believe this is a known issue; Harold Hope certainly knows about it and mentions it in smxi. I don't know who the Debian maintainer of GRUB 2 is, but checking with them, if you can find them, might be a good idea. If I can locate information, I will let you know.

What areas of documentation need work? I cannot promise that I have the expertise (and I am not sure how much time I will have either), but I'll at least examine what's needed, and if there are even small areas where I can help, I'd be glad to do so. As usual, I'm already testing and promoting antiX 12 and asking others to use it and test it out. The more feedback we get, the better we'll be with the end result.

You're doing great, well ahead of most distros this Spring, even in a testing stage.

The grub error is due to error in the minstaller coding. So if anyone knows grub and qt, get in touch.

Whenever I install, I always use either no grub or install to root as I already have grub on my MBR and I know what to add to the menu.lst to get newly installed to boot.
What would a noob do? (apart from installing grub to MBR)

anti, what part of antix-systems grub? Installing to root or the entirety of the grub section.

Dave, the entirety of the grub section.

Is there any 'good' reason to install grub to root partition?

We have install grub to MBR and don't install grub working fine.

Thoughts?

anticapitalista wrote:Is there any 'good' reason to install grub to root partition?

We have install grub to MBR and don't install grub working fine.

Thoughts?

For those of us who use GRUB 2 entirely, instead of GRUB Legacy, it is really not necessary any more to put GRUB in every partition - though having a few copies can come in handy, in case you want to"chain load" or you have problems, but I really think that we are covered well with the antiX live CD, because we can recover (and rebuild, if necessary), any boot loader issues in the Master Boot Record (MBR) that may arise. For these reasons, I do not believe that GRUB 2 installation issues into the root partition as opposed to the MBR creates a significant issue. If there were problems installing to the MBR, now that would be another issue altogether.

Some implementations provide a --force option in the grub-install script, which allows you to install to a root partition, such as /dev/sda7, even though that is now generally discouraged. Most of the time, installing to the MBR on your disk is the right thing to do.

For reference, the GNU GRUB documentation site at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-documentation.html"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-d ... ation.html"
====================================
may come in handy for some people. The current manual is at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html"
====================================
. The GNU site also cites Ubuntu documentation at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2"
linktext was:"https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2"
====================================
,
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html"
linktext was:"http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html"
====================================
as a pretty good tutorial, and
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/"
====================================
contains the current official documentation.

I provide this here in case anyone needs to do some reading on GRUB and does not have the information handy.

Is there any 'good' reason to install grub to root partition?

Though I don't multiiboot like I used to.

Any body running grub4dos on a mbr will install Antix grub to root partition to add entries in grub4dos menu. Just mentioning this. grub4dos pretty much works like grub legacy. Not grub2.

I just mention this because a lot of Puppy linux users use grub4dos as primary bootloader for mbr.

rokytnji wrote:

Is there any 'good' reason to install grub to root partition?

Though I don't multiiboot like I used to.

Any body running grub4dos on a mbr will install Antix grub to root partition to add entries in grub4dos menu. Just mentioning this. grub4dos pretty much works like grub legacy. Not grub2.

I just mention this because a lot of Puppy linux users use grub4dos as primary bootloader for mbr.

Given this information, do you think this is a potential problem when you use antiX with Puppy and grub4dos? Considering the capabilities we already have inherent in GRUB 2 when it is installed on the MBR in antiX, plus the antiX Live CD (or any one of numerous other recovery tools), unless someone can think of an area where we are unreasonably exposed for some users, these alternatives seem to be pretty solid. Any other ideas? So far, I'm leaning on the side that we have this covered, but I am interested in other opinions as well.

roky, would grub4dos users add antiX entry manually?

Brian, not sure I get you. antiX installs grub-legacy to MBR not grub2.

OK, GRUB Legacy presents different issues. If we can install GRUB Legacy to the MBR, then it's possible to access other bootable systems quite readily; the Legacy version has, to me, a more flexible editor. With it, you can easily scan for other bootable images. The inability to install it to a root partition shouldn't be a show stopper, unless someone can think of an issue where it does present serious obstacles. I also believe that there are ways to force the GRUB image into partitions, but I'm not exactly certain what the current impediments are.

Whether GRUB Legacy or GRUB 2 is used, I think the boot loader itself is flexible enough to help us get around, but I'm cool with whatever we decide to do.

Source for installer is here:


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://github.com/anticapitalista/antiX-installer/blob/master/minstall.cpp"
linktext was:"https://github.com/anticapitalista/anti ... nstall.cpp"
====================================

The only reason I prefer installing grub to the root partition and not mbr is because I use different *bsd systems. When grub is installing on mbr, I have to manually add whichever bsd I am using. I have different bsd systems on different computers.
However, this does not stop me from using antix __{{emoticon}}__

Wish I could help with the problems. About all I am is a tester/user.