16 Invoking grub-install

The program grub-install installs GRUB on your drive using the grub shell (see Invoking the grub shell). You must specify the device name on which you want to install GRUB, like this:

     grub-install install_device

The device name install_device is an OS device name or a GRUB device name.

grub-install accepts the following options:

--help

Print a summary of the command-line options and exit.

--version

Print the version number of GRUB and exit.

--force-lba

Force GRUB to use LBA mode even for a buggy BIOS. Use this option only if your BIOS doesn't work properly in LBA mode even though it supports LBA mode.

--root-directory=dir

Install GRUB images under the directory dir instead of the root directory. This option is useful when you want to install GRUB into a separate partition or a removable disk. Here is an example in which you have a separate boot partition which is mounted on /boot:

          grub-install --root-directory=/boot hd0
     

--grub-shell=file

Use file as the grub shell. You can append arbitrary options to file after the file name, like this:

          grub-install --grub-shell="grub --read-only" /dev/fd0
     

--recheck

Recheck the device map, even if /boot/grub/device.map already exists. You should use this option whenever you add/remove a disk into/from your computer.