grub-setup: --no-boot option?

[Paul Bolle]

0) I've been playing with GRUB 1.91. Not wanting to risk my MBR I put
GRUB 1.91 into the boot sector of a partition (hd0,2 actually).

1) Both these commands (entered at the GRUB 0.95 command line) will get
me the GRUB 1.91 prompt :
 - kernel (hd0,2)/boot/grub/core.img
   boot
 - chainload (hd0,2)+1
   boot

Am I correct in thinking these commands are essentially the same now?
GRUB2 seems to launch identically with both commands. Or are there side
effects I have overlooked?

2) If there are no (serious) side effects, would it be an idea to add an
"--no-boot" option to grub-setup? This option should then ensure that no
boot sectors will be changed so the only the effect of grub-setup would
be some (small but important) changes to a (specified or default)
core.img. This should make it somewhat safer to try GRUB2 (as MBR and
boot sectors will be left unchanged) without risking your current setup,
shouldn't it?

Regards,


Paul Bolle