Reverting to GRUB Legacy

If a user chooses to return to GRUB legacy (0.97), these steps will remove GRUB 2 and install GRUB.

The command line produces a cleaner uninstall and reinstallation. While adding and removing the packages can be accomplished with Synaptic, certain steps must be accomplished in a terminal.

1. Open a terminal: Applications, Accessories, Terminal.
2. Optional: Make backup copies of the main GRUB 2 directories and files.

   • sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.old

   • sudo cp -R /etc/grub.d /etc/grub.d.old

   • sudo cp -R /boot/grub /boot/grub.old

3. Remove GRUB 2

   • sudo apt-get purge grub-pc

   • The system will be unbootable until another bootloader is installed.

   • Once the packages are removed, many files will still remain in '/boot/grub'
4. Install GRUB 0.97

   • sudo apt-get install grub

5. With grub installed, the user must still create the menu.lst and stage1/stage2 files by running the following two commands.

   1. sudo grub-install /dev/sdX

      • Choose the correct device (sda, sdb, etc), normally the one on which Ubuntu is installed.

      • Creates the stage1 and stage2 files in /boot/grub and writes to the MBR.

   2. sudo update-grub

      • Generates menu.lst

      • Tab to "Yes" when prompted.
6. Reboot

ref:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reverting_to_GRUB_Legacy