Is it posible to add Ubuntu installed on Ext4 to MBR

shellman

New member
Local time
1:21 PM
Messages
34
I think MBR is the bootloader if not then whatever it is the ideais not havin to install GRUB.

Thanks in advance !! :)
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bitsi54GBIntel HD graphics
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Acer Aspire 5735
OS
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bits
CPU
i5
Memory
4GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
16:9
Screen Resolution
1366 X 768
Hard Drives
500GB
Other Info
Laptop
You will need GRUB no matter what (I think), but you do have a choice about where and how to install it. Normally, you'd install Ubuntu after Windows 7 and GRUB would be written "on top of" the Windows boot loader. When you boot up, GRUB would load and you'd then pick Windows or Ubuntu.

But...if you use something like EasyBCD, you can install GRUB in the Ubuntu partition and use EasyBCD to modify the Windows bootloader to give you the choice of booting Windows or Ubuntu.

I've done it a time or two, and it works fine but I don't remember the specifics. Google up EasyBCD and check out their forums and how-to's to get a walkthrough on this.

Edit: I should have read the post title more carefully, but EasyBCD should still work...
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Enterprise x64 SP1, Ubuntu 11.04 x64Core2Quad Q6700 - 2.66 GHz8 Gig Mushkin DDR2 800 MHzEVGA NVIDIA 9800GT - 512MB DDR3
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Dell E520
OS
Windows 7 Enterprise x64 SP1, Ubuntu 11.04 x64
CPU
Core2Quad Q6700 - 2.66 GHz
Motherboard
Whatever the heck Dell put in there...
Memory
8 Gig Mushkin DDR2 800 MHz
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA NVIDIA 9800GT - 512MB DDR3
Monitor(s) Displays
2 x 19" ViewSonic LCD
Screen Resolution
2560x1024
Hard Drives
1 Intel X25-M 120G SSD, 1 300G VelociRaptor, 1 WD Caviar Black 1TB
PSU
PCPower & Cooling Silencer 500 Watt
Internet Speed
15/2 Roadrunner Cable
Other Info
NOD32 AV - Malwarebytes
Its going to be hard to find this feature

Micrisoft doesn't have the need to add this to their bootloader after all. I posted the idea of adding Grub installer to WUBI too install Grub on a Windows session send me a PM if you want to see it.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bitsi54GBIntel HD graphics
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Acer Aspire 5735
OS
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bits
CPU
i5
Memory
4GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
16:9
Screen Resolution
1366 X 768
Hard Drives
500GB
Other Info
Laptop
Interesting

Sam Dawson
Thanks for this solution, however it did not help my situation as windows was kind enough to rewrite the mbr on my laptop when it went into hibernate. This laptop does not have a working cd drive, thus is unable boot from a livecd.

Another solution I found is to use ntldr and load a version of grub from there (grub4dos). I think it would be a good idea to provide instructions for people on how to achieve this using ntldr and grldr.

The only caveat with having a setup like this is that you will need to copy menu.lst that grub uses to the default windows partition everytime you perform an system update (otherwise it wont load the latest kernel).

I have setup my laptop to use this method. First I added the line:

C:\grldr=”GRUB Bootloader” to windows’s boot.ini

I copied the file grldr from grub4dos to C:\

Using ext2ifs on windows I copied the menu.lst from /boot/grub to C:\ on my windows install.

After rebooting, I had a working install of GRUB. This didn’t require me to rewrite the mbr of my hard drive.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bitsi54GBIntel HD graphics
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Acer Aspire 5735
OS
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bits
CPU
i5
Memory
4GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
16:9
Screen Resolution
1366 X 768
Hard Drives
500GB
Other Info
Laptop

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bitsi54GBIntel HD graphics
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Acer Aspire 5735
OS
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bits
CPU
i5
Memory
4GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
16:9
Screen Resolution
1366 X 768
Hard Drives
500GB
Other Info
Laptop
Solution!

You will need GRUB no matter what (I think), but you do have a choice about where and how to install it. Normally, you'd install Ubuntu after Windows 7 and GRUB would be written "on top of" the Windows boot loader. When you boot up, GRUB would load and you'd then pick Windows or Ubuntu.

But...if you use something like EasyBCD, you can install GRUB in the Ubuntu partition and use EasyBCD to modify the Windows bootloader to give you the choice of booting Windows or Ubuntu.

I've done it a time or two, and it works fine but I don't remember the specifics. Google up EasyBCD and check out their forums and how-to's to get a walkthrough on this.

Edit: I should have read the post title more carefully, but EasyBCD should still work...

Easy BCD is great!! That was the solution after all. THanks WiFi Ed :D
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bitsi54GBIntel HD graphics
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Acer Aspire 5735
OS
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bits
CPU
i5
Memory
4GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
16:9
Screen Resolution
1366 X 768
Hard Drives
500GB
Other Info
Laptop
Back
Top