Steps to install GRUB on Linux server

How to Install GRUB for Linux Server

You cannot use the cloud migration tool to migrate Linux servers with lower kernel versions and built-in system boot loader GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) versions lower than 1.99, such as CentOS 5 and Debian 7. And when the log file prompts Do Grub Failed, it may be because the system boot program GRUB version 1.99 or above is not installed.

This article mainly describes how to install the system boot program GRUB 1.99 version for your source server. The installation process for GRUB 1.99 and above is the same as that for 1.99 and 2.02. The main difference is that different GRUB source packages are downloaded during the installation process. You can visit https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/ to obtain the download address of the new version.

Install GRUB version 1.99

Log in to the source server.

Run the following command to view the paths of the original grub, grub-install, and grub-mkconfig:

which grub
which grub-install
which grub-mkconfig

Use the mv command to rename the old versions of grub, grub-install, and grub-mkconfig to back up the files. After migrating the server using the cloud migration tool, you can restore the original name to use the original configuration.

mv /sbin/grub /sbin/grub-old
mv /sbin/grub-install /sbin/grub-install-old 
mv /sbin/grub-mkconfig /sbin/grub-mkconfig-old

Run yum install -y bison gcc make to install the bison, gcc, and make tools that GRUB depends on.

Run the following command to install flex.

test -d /root/tools || mkdir -p /root/tools
cd /root/tools
wget https://github.com/westes/flex/releases/download/v2.6.4/flex-2.6.4.tar.gz
tar xzf flex-2.6.4.tar.gz
cd flex-2.6.4
mkdir -p build
cd build
../configure
make && make install
ln -s /usr/local/bin/flex /usr/bin/flex

Run the following command to install GRUB 1.99 dependencies.

test -d /root/tools || mkdir -p /root/tools
cd /root/tools
wget https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-1.99~rc1.tar.gz
tar xzf grub-1.99~rc1.tar.gz
cd grub-1.99~rc1
mkdir -p build
cd build
../configure
sed -i -e "s/-Werror//" ./grub-core/Makefile
make && make install
ln -s /usr/local/sbin/grub-install /sbin/grub-install
ln -s /usr/local/sbin/grub-mkconfig /sbin/grub-mkconfig

Note: If a -Werror error occurs during compilation, you can locate the compile file makefile of the compilation object, remove the -Werror option and recompile.

Run grub-install --version to check whether the GRUB version is updated to 1.99.

Next step

After successfully updating the system boot program GRUB 1.99, you can use the cloud migration tool to migrate the server to Alibaba Cloud.

(Optional) After successful migration, run the following command to restore the old version of GRUB:

rm /sbin/grub-install
rm /sbin/grub-mkconfig
rm /boot/grub/grub.cfg
mv /sbin/grub-old /sbin/grub
mv /sbin/grub-install-old /sbin/grub-install