On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 3:01 PM, Mike Gilbert <flop...@gentoo.org> wrote: > 3. grub2-install calls grub2-bios-setup which installs boot.img into > the MBR and embeds core.img into the sectors immediately after the > MBR.
Ok, that isn't all that unlike grub1 - that is what stage1.5 is. It just sounds like these aren't static files that are copied out of /boot/grub, but rather they're built on-demand from other files there. Grub1 figures out which static stage1.5 you need based on where /boot is. They probably went to a more dynamic model so that they can support stuff like LVM+MD+LUKS+etc without having every permutation of static code. I'm not sure how smart the bootloader code ends up being - it wouldn't surprise me if at time of install the installer does all the work and just loads a simple bootloader on the diagnostic cylinder with just enough smarts to find /boot if it hasn't changed. Rich
