[gentoo-user] [cookbook] grub2 for idiots like me

[walt]

Okay, I genuinely have grub2 installed and doing exactly what it's
supposed to do:  boot your machine using only partition LABELS, not
device names/numbers.

Below are a series of steps that *any* gentoo fan should recognize and
be comfortable with.

If you are not familiar with any of these steps, you really *should*
become familiar with them.

If you don't *want* to become familiar with them, have you tried ubuntu?

First, skip grub-1.98 and go for grub-1.99-rc1 because it's much better.

Yes, you could unmask sys-boot/grub-9999, but that's way more trouble
than it's worth.  Learn to do it the way it's meant to be done and you
will be pleased with your new skills :)

You need to get the source tarball first.  Many different ways to do
that, but my brain-dead way is to use firefox and enter this URL:

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/

Click on the file grub-1.99~rc1.tar.gz to start downloading it. If you
don't know where firefox is saving the file, shame on you.

You should become familiar with building software in your own home
directory.  At work or school you may not have root privileges, so
be brave now and learn how easy it is:

$ cd
$ mkdir src
$ cd src
$ tar -xvzf <wherever>/grub-1.99~rc1.tar.gz <lots of screen output>
$ cd grub-1.99~rc1

Many projects will include the 'configure' file as part of the tarball,
but grub2 does not.  Lots of files like configure.ac, config.in, etc,
but you won't find 'configure' this time.

So, you need to create a brand new 'configure' by running the autogen.sh
script that the grub2 devs include for that purpose.  (You may need to
emerge sys-devel/autogen if you don't already have it.)

$ ./autogen.sh  (tons of screen output>
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ ../configure --prefix=$HOME  <the default is /usr/local, but you are
                                 not root, so you can't install anything
                                 in /usr/local>
$ make all install  <compile and install grub2 in your home dir>

This step, if it works, will install grub stuff in ~/sbin ~/bin ~/etc
~/share and ~/lib/grub.  The directories should be created if they
don't already exist, I think.

Up to now your system files have not been touched because you are not
root and therefore you are not able to break your system.

I'm taking a break now to answer any questions about problems you may
encounter, and because I've had enough beer for today already.

All of this should be old material for gentooers.  If it's new to you,
then please try the steps above just to learn the basics of building
(any) linux software.  Even if you fail you will learn in the process.