Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to set up drive with many Linux distros?

[Wols Lists <antlists@youngman.org.uk>]

On 23/02/2024 00:28, Grant Edwards wrote:
> In my experience, <distro>'s bootloader does not boot other
> installations by calling other bootloaders. It does so by rummaging
> through all of the other partitions looking for kernel images, intird
> files, grub.cfg files, etc.  It then adds menu entries to the config
> file for <distro>'s bootloader which, when selected, directly load the
> kernel image and initrd from those other partitions. Sometimes, it
> works -- at least until those other installations get updated without
> the knowlege of the distro that currently "owns" the MBR's bootloader
> config. Then it stops working until you tell that bootloader to re-do
> it's rummaging about routine.

IME distros that try that (SUSE, anyone!) generally get confused as to 
which kernel belongs to which root partition.

Hence needing to boot with a live distro to edit the resulting mess and 
get the system to actually come up without crashing ...

Cheers,
Wol