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Usage Boot Info Script:

Run the script as sudoer:

sudo ./bootinfoscript <outputfile>

or if your operating system does not use sudo:

su -
./bootinfoscript <outputfile>

When running the script, without specifying an output file, all the output is written to the file "RESULTS.txt" in the same folder as the script.

But when run from /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or another system folder, the file "RESULTS.txt" is written to the home directory of the user.

When the file "RESULTS.txt" already exists, the results will be written to "RESULTS1.txt". If "RESULTS1.txt" exists, the results will be written to "RESULTS2.txt", ...

To get version number, release date, last git commit and git retrieval date of this script, use (no root rights needed):

./bootinfoscript -v
./bootinfoscript -V
./bootinfoscript --version

To get this help text, use (no root rights needed):

./bootinfoscript -h
./bootinfoscript -help
./bootinfoscript --help

To automatically gzip a copy of the output file, use (root rights needed):

./bootinfoscript -g <outputfile>
./bootinfoscript --gzip <outputfile>

To write the output to stdout instead of a file, use (root rights needed):

./bootinfoscript --stdout

The last development version of Boot Info Script can be downloaded, with: (no root rights needed)

./bootinfoscript --update <filename>

If no filename is specified, the file will be saved in the home dir as "bootinfoscript_YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss".

Features:

  • Look at each MBR and identify its boot loader:

    • For GRUB and SuperGRUB: display the controlling partition.
    • For GRUB2: display the disk offset of the core.img as recorded in the boot sector. Parse core.img and display embedded modules, prefix and config script.
    • For Syslinux altmbr: display embedded boot partition number.
    • If the MBR is unknown, display the whole MBR.
  • Look at all partitions:

    • Determine their type.
    • Identify their boot sectors. ° For GRUB: display the controlling partition and the offset of the stage2 file as recorded in the boot sector. ° For GRUB2: display the disk offset of the core.img as recorded in the boot sector. Parse core.img and display embedded modules, prefix and config script. ° For Syslinux: display the full version name, check if internal checksum matches, display installation directory, display offset of the ldlinux.sys file. ° For NTFS and FAT: examine the Boot Parameter Block for errors.
    • Identify the operating system installed on that partition.
    • List boot programs.
    • Display the partition table.
    • Display the output of "blkid".
    • Look in "/" and "NST" for bootpart codes and display the offset and boot drive, it is trying to chainload.
    • Look on "/" and "/NST" for stage1 files and display the offset and boot drive of the stage 2 files it is trying to chainload.
    • Display boot configuration files.
    • Is able to search LVM partitions if the LVM2 package is installed ("apt-get install lvm2" in debian based distros).
    • Is able to search Linux Software RAID partitions (MD RAIDs) if the "mdadm" package is installed.
    • If dmraid is installed, search all RAID drives, detected by dmraid.