GRUB2 Bootloader Editor v0.5.0

GRUB2 Bootloader Editor version 0.5.0 was just released. Highlights of this release are:

Easily recover GRUB2 (from a Live CD):

Installing(=Recovering) GRUB

Are you unable to boot your Linux installation because you accidentally installed Windows after Linux? No problem! Boot from a Live CD of your Linux distribution, install the GRUB2 Editor using one of the many provided packages and restore GRUB in just a couple of seconds. It’s really easy! (More info)

Disable memtest entries:

Disable memtest entries

You may now further customise your GRUB2 menu by selecting whether or not memtest entries will be generated.

Translations:

In this release you will also find translations for the following languages, thanks to the corresponding KDE translation teams:

• Danish
• German
• Estonian
• Hungarian
• Dutch
• Portuguese
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Swedish
• Ukrainian

Other features:

Other new features include:

• Warn the user when trying to uninstall the current kernel.
• Manually find missing configuration files which are needed.
• Recover initial settings (undoes all changes performed by this tool).

I estimate that the next release will be in about 2 months from now, due to restraining schedule.

As always you may get binary packages for most major distributions (Arch, Fedora, Mandriva, openSUSE, Ubuntu) from our KDE-Apps.org page. Enjoy

Changelog Quote:

v.0.5.0 (09/05/2011)
——————–
*ADDED: Recover GRUB2 (from a Live CD).
*ADDED: Option to toggle generation of memtest entries.
*ADDED: Manually find missing configuration files which are needed.
*ADDED: Restore default settings.
*FIXED: Warn the user when trying to uninstall the current kernel.

*I18N: Added 9 new translations: Danish, German, Estonian, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Swedish, Ukrainian.

Recovering GRUB (The Easy Way)

It’s well past midnight over here so I’ll try to keep it short. I will present you a new feature of the GRUB2 Editor: recovering GRUB (from a Live CD). A new feature that hopefully many user-friendly distributions will adore because it bypasses the intimidating console when trying to recover GRUB, for example when installing Windows after your Linux distribution; an action that will erase GRUB from the MBR(=Master Boot Record) and render your Linux setup unbootable. I’ll let some screenshots do the talking:

Live CD Welcome Screen

Recover Screen

Installing(=Recovering) GRUB

Job Done!

So, firstly you are presented with two options when launching the GRUB Editor from a Live CD (screenshot #1); choosing the recovery option provides you with a list of detected partitions along with some information to help you determine where your previous installation resides (screenshot #2), picking a partition and Applying will initiate the installation process (screenshot #3) which will hopefully lead you to screenshot #4.

This post was published in hoping for feedback before making the next release (which will happen anytime soon). So any suggestions/insults are more than welcome

PS: Screenshots and testing done on a Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Live CD.