Grub menu (while booting) shows its GRUB2 though the version is 0.97

I had installed on my hard disk Ubuntu 12.10 (I think its GRUB version was 0.97). Then I upgraded to 13.04. When now I run grub-install -v, it shows its GRUB 2.00

I later faced issue with Ubuntu13.04 that I wasn't able to boot. So using live Ubuntu 12.10 CD, I reinstalled my GRUB. But then when the same command was run (grub-install -v), It showed its GRUB 0.97

That means the live CD of Ubuntu 12.10 had GRUB 0.97. So, I used to work with this set up. [ Now 1 serious point arises. Does Ubuntu 12.10 has GRUB version 0.97? Because Ubuntu site says that since Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), its GRUB 2 ]

But what I noticed that thought the command outputs GRUB version 0.97, when I boot the system the boot menu shows GRUB 2.0 (written at the top as heading). Though its clear that my GRUB is 0.97 (as confirmed by the command run in terminal), so that's what I was thinking why the GRUB menu ( while booting ) shows the wrong version.

What I think is that as my original O.S. (13.04) had GRUB 2.0, so due to reinstalling GRUB from Ubuntu12.10 (which has GRUB version 0.97), the boot-loader changed from GRUB 2.0 to GRUB version 0.97 but the heading remained unchanged.

Please focus some light on this.

I would like to add that I followed Ubuntu site and upgraded my GRUB from 0.97 to GRUB 2.0. Now I get the below output:

ravbholua@ravbholua-Aspire-5315:~$ grub-install -v
grub-install (GRUB) 2.00-13ubuntu3
ravbholua@ravbholua-Aspire-5315:~$ 

EDIT

I have rechecked and found that I as ran sudo apt-get install grub with an intent to run grub command, I got grub legacy without my knowledge. Yesterday I upgraded my GRUB from legacy to GRUB 2. To test my question that I asked, just now I installed boot-loader from Ubuntu 12.10 live CD. I checked via command line in the live CD the version of GRUB & it showed GNU GRUB version 2.00-7ubuntu11. Then I removed the live CD and rebooted. In the GRUB menu, it showed the same GRUB version as above i.e. GNU GRUB version 2.00-7ubuntu11. But after logging, via command line it showed grub-install (GRUB) 2.00-13ubuntu3. This is what the command line had output yesterday i.e. before I reinstalled GRUB today from live CD. Why this diff.?

2 Answers

Both grub & grub2 use the same grub install command, but it depends on which package you have installed. If you uninstalled grub-pc which is grub2 and installed grub you then have the old grub legacy.

From your chroot.

uninstall both grub legacy & grub2 reinstall grub2 and to sda

apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common
mv /boot/grub /boot/grub_backup
mkdir /boot/grub
apt-get install grub-pc grub-common
grub-install /dev/sda
grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

Actually, as you can read here: , Grub (being version 0.97 and other 0.xx versions) has been replaced by it successor Grub 2 (showing up as version 1.97 and up) since Ubuntu 9.10. So your Ubuntu 12.10 installation very probably already had Grub 2 installed. I also remember my 12.04 installation saying it had Grub 2 (more specifically 1.99 I think but I'm not sure) installed.

I do not know why the command line on your 12.10 CD is stating that it is Grub 0.97, but I am pretty sure it is actually already Grub 2. Perhaps you stumbled on bug in that 12.10 version or due to legacy reasons Grub 0.97 is still present. In the latter case I do not know why it would have installed Grub 0.97 instead of Grub 2 on your system.