[bug #38284] GRUB should provide option to swap partition order

[Ulf Zibis]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?38284>

                 Summary: GRUB should provide option to swap partition order
                 Project: GNU GRUB
            Submitted by: ulfzibis
            Submitted on: Fr 08 Feb 2013 00:45:51 GMT
                Category: Booting
                Severity: Major
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Ulf Zibis
        Originator Email: address@hidden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 
                 Release: Bazaar - trunk
         Reproducibility: Every Time
         Planned Release: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

After several unsuccessful tries with different combinations of command
"parttool (partition) hidden+-", I've found a possibility to have 2 WinXP
installations, both originally installed on sda1 aka "C:", alternatively
running on one disk. I copied my old Windows XP partition from sda1 to sda2.
After a fresh new Windows XP installation was installed to sda1.

First I tried this:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#DOS_002fWindows

It works for to boot the Windows installation on sda1, but it dosn't work for
the one on sda2 (~ 10 seconds after WinXP boot screen I got a blue-screen).
Surely it should work to boot Windows from sda2, if that Windows installation
was originally installed to sda2 aka "D:", which is not the case here. There
may be a chance, to tweak Windows registry with advanced expert knowledge, to
change the Windows drive letter mapping to make the Windows system volume
named as "D:", as if it was originally installed so, but this is hard work.

So the only thing I found out, that works, is to swap the order of those
partitions in the partition table (print from sfdisk):
         Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
      /dev/sda1   *      0+   3038    3039-  24410736    7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
      /dev/sda2      16418   19456    3039   24410767+   7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
      /dev/sda3       3039    5390    2352   18892440   83  Linux
      ....
exchange/toggle with:
      /dev/sda1      16418   19456    3039   24410767+   7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
      /dev/sda2   *      0+   3038    3039-  24410736    7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
      /dev/sda3       3039    5390    2352   18892440   83  Linux
      ....

Unfortunately GRUB can't do that until now, so hereby I suggest an additional

option e.g.:

      parttool (hd0,1) swap-order (hd0,2)

The option should include swapping the volume-IDs in the menu entries in
grub.cfg as well, so they would again match correctly.

So initially, Grub menu should look like:
  Ubuntu
  Extended Options for Ubuntu
  Memory test ...
  Microsoft Windows XP Professional NEW (on /dev/sda1)
  Microsoft Windows XP Professional OLD (on /dev/sda2)
But after once booting into "Windows XP OLD", according my RFE, after reboot,
the menu should look like:
  Ubuntu
  Extended Options for Ubuntu
  Memory test ...
  Microsoft Windows XP Professional NEW (on /dev/sda2)  <-- note the swapped
no.
  Microsoft Windows XP Professional OLD (on /dev/sda1)


Thanks,

-Ulf








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