On Tue, 2013-01-22 at 15:11 +0000, Ian Malone wrote:
Actually the grub2 install thing should not affect dual-booting windows.
You're right, it doesn't. I can dual boot Windows just fine with grub2. I was responding to the comment that there is no reason to ever need a native boot when a VM would do.
From what I understand (I've never used this setup myself) some people multi-boot linux versions by having separate /boot and a partition-installed grub for each one
I used to do that so that I could hibernate Linux and then boot Windows, later thawing Linux. This was necessary because when there was a hibernate image present, Linux used to immediately boot the matching kernel without presenting the grub menu, so when Linux was hibernated, it was impossible to boot any other OS. I got around that by having grub in a partition and using a chainloader statement to load it from the disk's boot sector. I believe this was done to make sure the user didn't select the wrong kernel, which would trash the hibernation image and require a cold boot. Since the switch to grub2, I now get the usual menu regardless of whether or not there is a hibernation image present, so I no longer need to install grub in a partition.
--Greg