How to configure GRUB for dual-booting? (Solved)

[cruzin]

Hi, I partitioned my drive on my notebook. I have win98 on hda1 and made ext2 and ext3, which are hda6 hda7, I made a directory on hda6 called boot. I ran the grub installer, choose the hda6 for the files and had it write to the mbr. When I try to start up I can choose windows or linux on hda6, linux on hda7 or make grub floppy or command prompt. or boot puppy.
When I choose puppy it tells me that the kernel must load before the valinuz if I remember right. this is what I added in the bottom of the menu.lst file
# For booting Puppy
title = Puppy (on /dev/hda6)
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
kernal /boot/valinuz root=/dev/ram0 loglevel=3 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
chainloader +1

I only made the directory of boot and grub installed itself in it, I copied the 4 files needed to the root I think /mnt/hda6 the same place that boot is at. When that did not work I copied them inside of the boot directory. Im still getting the error that kernel has to load before valinuz. Any suggestions? thanks in advance.

[cruzin]

I should explain what Im trying to do.
I want a dual boot with grub. I have 256 meg ram 20 gig hdd on a notebook. t21. I would like to install to hard drive and boot with grub

[HairyWill]

kernal /boot/valinuz root=/dev/ram0 loglevel=3 PMEDIA=idehd

shouldn't that be

Code: Select all

kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 loglevel=3 PMEDIA=idehd

[Ian]

There is a Grub section on the wiki.

[cruzin]

finally got it booting, thanks for pointing out the mispelled words and the wiki help folks. appreciate it. heres what i ended up with. Id like to remove some of the lines ill never use it the grub screen where you can choose either windoz or puppy, if someone can point me in the grub editing section ill try it out. thanks again
# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'. Sun Jan 7 01:06:23 2007
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hda' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hda.4963'. You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hda.4963 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Other bootable partition config begins
title Windows (on /dev/hda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda6)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda7)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,5)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hda6)
root (hd0,5)
setup (hd0,5)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)
# For booting Puppy
title = Puppy (on /dev/hda6)
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 loglevel=3 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

[Riam]

Id like to remove some of the lines ill never use it the grub screen where you can choose either windoz or puppy, if someone can point me in the grub editing section ill try it out.

Not sure if I understood what you mean, but let´s give it a try just in case...

Just go to Rox (file manager) and find "Root", and then the "Boot" folder. In there, you´ll find the "grub/menu.lst" file where all the grub settings are stored. If you´re not 100 % sure what you´re doing, it might be a good idea to make a backup file (of the original "menu.lst" file) before you start editing. Hope it helped.

[cruzin]

Thanks Riam for the reply,
in the following menu.lst file, how can I edit it to remove the choices I see on the grub start screen where I can either choose windows or puppy?
do I place a # in front of the line I dont want to see or edit the line out of the file? I tried putting a # in front of some lines the other day and it no longer would start up. Im unclear how to edit out items.
thanks again.

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'. Sun Jan 7 01:06:23 2007
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hda' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hda.4963'. You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hda.4963 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Other bootable partition config begins
title Windows (on /dev/hda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda6)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda7)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,5)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hda6)
root (hd0,5)
setup (hd0,5)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)
# For booting Puppy
title = Puppy (on /dev/hda6)
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 loglevel=3 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

[Riam]

How many entries do you want to be accessible from the Grub (start-up) menu, and how would you like them to appear?

Also, I recommend that you take a look at this:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual ... figuration. It might help you a little in your search.

[cruzin]

Thanks for the url to the grub instructions, after checking that out there is alot id change. Id like to default boot to puppy after 5 seconds unless I hit the esc key then see options to boot to windows. I guess that would take care of my desires. Ive saved my menu.lst file as menu1.lst and carefully saved it away so I dont edit myself out of the computer again! Ill try to work it out and if I cant get it mabey ill send out a distress call..thanks, which will probably happen as im a newb

[cruzin]

I been trying to edit my menu.lst file to boot puppy by default.
I did the puppy installer and installed puppy to my ext2 hd06 partition and ran grub, edited and made to start up and give option of windows or puppy among other default options. I read up on the grub program and found that I can hidemenu on startup of grub and boot to the default os but I can find out how to set up the os you want to start as the default, its not listed as a line command in the puppy grub installer. so where do I put that command, and i would like to hidmenu also and give it a time to start of 5 seconds unless i hit the esc key. Any suggestions on this? thanks

[WhoDo]

I been trying to edit my menu.lst file to boot puppy by default.
I did the puppy installer and installed puppy to my ext2 hd06 partition and ran grub, edited and made to start up and give option of windows or puppy among other default options. I read up on the grub program and found that I can hidemenu on startup of grub and boot to the default os but I can find out how to set up the os you want to start as the default, its not listed as a line command in the puppy grub installer. so where do I put that command, and i would like to hidmenu also and give it a time to start of 5 seconds unless i hit the esc key. Any suggestions on this? thanks

In your Grub menu.lst file you need to add the following line before the first OS section:

default=? #replace the ? with the entry number in your list of entries - 1

For example, if your Puppy entry is second in the list (with your Windows entry 1st) then to make Puppy default you would use default=1

You can also simply move your Puppy entry to be the first one in the list and then it will be the default by default

There should also be a line as follows:

#timeout 30

Remove the # from the start of the line and change the 30 (seconds) to however long you want it to wait before booting the default.

[cruzin]

Thanks WhoDo, I was just coming back to post my experiences! I did just about what you said. I moved puppy up above windows, I entered the command hiddenmenu above the time limit and changed that to 05. Now if I want to go to puppy I just leave it alone or if I want to go to win98 i hit the esc key and choose it. thanks to everyone for the help....now on to gxine or anyother dvd player to see if I can get puppy to watch dvds, any one with suggestions give me a shout. thanks again