Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Paul Albrecht]

Hi,

A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
If not, is there an option to inhibit grub from writing to the boot
device?

-- 

Paul Albrecht

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Pavel Roskin]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

No.

> If not, is there an option to inhibit grub from writing to the boot
> device?

No.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Paul Albrecht]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 17:20 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
> 
> No.
> 

I'm booting linux with grub and have setup a separate boot partition.
After I boot the system, I md5sum'ed the boot device and compared it
with one saved from a prior boot. They're always different.

Any idea why the md5sums for the boot device differ?

> > If not, is there an option to inhibit grub from writing to the boot
> > device?
> 
> No.
> 
-- 

Paul Albrecht

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[ardoRic]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Paul Albrecht <albrecht@rdi1.com> wrote:
>
>  On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 17:20 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
>  > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
>  > > Hi,
>  > >
>  > > A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
>  >
>  > No.
>  >
>
>  I'm booting linux with grub and have setup a separate boot partition.
>  After I boot the system, I md5sum'ed the boot device and compared it
>  with one saved from a prior boot. They're always different.
>
>  Any idea why the md5sums for the boot device differ?
>

if it was mounted and it's not a read-only filesystem it's quite
probable that your OS changed something in the filesystem meta data.
Example would be updating last mount time.

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Pavel Roskin]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 16:59 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 17:20 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
> > 
> > No.
> > 
> 
> I'm booting linux with grub and have setup a separate boot partition.
> After I boot the system, I md5sum'ed the boot device and compared it
> with one saved from a prior boot. They're always different.
> 
> Any idea why the md5sums for the boot device differ?

Perhaps it's the mount counter and the mount timestamp (if it's ext2 or
ext3).

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Paul Albrecht]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 22:09 +0000, ardoRic wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Paul Albrecht <albrecht@rdi1.com> wrote:
> >
> >  On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 17:20 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> >  > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> >  > > Hi,
> >  > >
> >  > > A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
> >  >
> >  > No.
> >  >
> >
> >  I'm booting linux with grub and have setup a separate boot partition.
> >  After I boot the system, I md5sum'ed the boot device and compared it
> >  with one saved from a prior boot. They're always different.
> >
> >  Any idea why the md5sums for the boot device differ?
> >
> 
> if it was mounted and it's not a read-only filesystem it's quite
> probable that your OS changed something in the filesystem meta data.
> Example would be updating last mount time.
> 

That's it ... the boot partition was mounted by nautilus so at least the
mount time was updated. Thanks!

> 
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel
-- 

Paul Albrecht

Re: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?

[Paul Albrecht]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 18:11 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 16:59 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 17:20 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 15:26 -0500, Paul Albrecht wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > A question: Does grub have to write to the boot device to boot a system?
> > > 
> > > No.
> > > 
> > 
> > I'm booting linux with grub and have setup a separate boot partition.
> > After I boot the system, I md5sum'ed the boot device and compared it
> > with one saved from a prior boot. They're always different.
> > 
> > Any idea why the md5sums for the boot device differ?
> 
> Perhaps it's the mount counter and the mount timestamp (if it's ext2 or
> ext3).

Yes, That's it ... nautilus mounted the boot partition which updated the
last mount time. Thanks!

> 
-- 

Paul Albrecht