Removing Boot Loader Information

When openSUSE was installed, GRUB information was installed in the Extended partition rather than in the MBR.

I have a triple boot system: Windows XP Pro, openSUSE, and another popular distro on Linux. The other distro put GRUB info in MBR. Now when I boot up it goes to member first. If I select openSUSE, the GRUB info in the extended partion is accessed and a 2nd selection screen is displayed.

I tried reloading the GRUB data for openSUSE selceting to install it in MBR but this does not seem to work.

How do I get rid of the GRUB stuff in the extended partition so that the 2nd GRUB screen does not get displayed?

When openSUSE was installed, GRUB information was installed in the Extended partition rather than in the MBR.

I have a triple boot system: Windows XP Pro, openSUSE, and another popular distro on Linux. The other distro put GRUB info in MBR. Now when I boot up it goes to member first. If I select openSUSE, the GRUB info in the extended partion is accessed and a 2nd selection screen is displayed.

I tried reloading the GRUB data for openSUSE selceting to install it in MBR but this does not seem to work.

How do I get rid of the GRUB stuff in the extended partition so that the 2nd GRUB screen does not get displayed?
If the other Linux distro uses Grub Legacy like openSUSE 11.4, then you could just copy the entire entry from the openSUSE menu and add it to the first Linux grub menu. If the other Linux is Ubuntu, you will need to update the Grub 2 menu with the openSUSE menu entry. I would suggest you search around for help with openSUSE 11.4 and Grub 2. Since you did not specify the other Linux, I am just guessing here. I must tell you that having two menus does allow openSUSE to work normally, including a kernel update and so leaving it just as it is does remove certain complications you might otherwise run in to.

Thank You,

That’s because you’re chainloading Legacy Grub in your extended partition from the Grub installed in your MBR. There is nothing wrong with that. However you could also boot openSUSE (or any other Linux distro kernel) directly from either Grub2 or Legacy Grub.

On Grub2 based distros (like Ubuntu or latest Debian) run:

sudo update-grub

On openSUSE or other Legacy Grub based distros, you can use updategrub.

Both are based on the same tool (os-prober) and will add all Linux kernel entries it might find on any partitions, allowing you to boot those kernels directly.

See the updategrub howto here: updategrub for openSUSE Legacy Grub (not update-grub!)

You can install it for openSUSE as described in this article. RPM packages for Fedora and Mandriva are also available in my repo:

Index of /repositories/home:/please_try_again/Fedora_14/noarch
Index of /repositories/home:/please_try_again/Mandriva_2010.1/noarch

You can use it on other distros (like Arch Linux) by simply copying the files … but you would need to install os-proper yourself.

  • alternatively, you can set a timeout of 0 in /boot/grub/menu.lst under openSUSE if all you want is to get rid of the Grub menu. I wouldn’t recommend it though.

On 2011-06-12 01:36, rick2210 wrote:
> How do I get rid of the GRUB stuff in the extended partition so that
> the 2nd GRUB screen does not get displayed?

Better not.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

Tje other distro I am using is PCLinuxOS - LXDE. It correctly constructed the MENU.LST file including an entry for openSUSE

There is no updategrub or update-grub command any where in my openSUSE 11.4 installation!

If I open YAST, select System then Boot Loader, select the Boot Loader Installation tab, there is a list of ‘Boot Loader Location’ selections:

Boot from Master Boot Record
Boot from Root Partition
Boot from Boot Partition (not available for selection)
Boot from Extended Partition
Custom Boot Partition

Boot from Extended Partition was checked when I came here after installation. I was not given a choice to select one of these during installation. I tried selecting Boot from Master Boot Record but nothing happened or changed. One would think selecting this would have deleted the Boot from Extended Partition and would have created a record in the MBR. WRONG!

In addition, the routine in YAST does not detect or list anything but openSUSE!

To those of you who made suggestions then stated not to do what was suggested, stop doing this. If it shouldn’t be done, don’t suggest it.

I never said there was one, but I gave you the link which explains how to install it and how to use it.