Fwd: Auckland and booting with two Linux Distros

[Bob Nielsen]

On Thu, Oct 28, 2004 at 02:19:26PM +1300, Christoph Georgi wrote:
> Thanks..
> 
> how do I find out what numbers to use behind the hd? I've got one hda 
> with 4 partitions:
> hda1 - windows
> hda2 - ubuntu
> hda3 - debian
> hda4 - swap

hda1 = hd0,0
hda2 = hd0,1
hdb1 = hd1,0

etc.  Grub starts counting with 0, rather than a or 1.

> 
> Does Grub mount root depending on the OS I want to load? It seemed to me 
> that in Lilo it first mounted the root and then looked for the kernel 
> image relative to the root dir, which makes it impossible to boot two 
> different kernels?!


The root line shows where root is:

For example, if hda1, use

root  (hd0,1)

The kernel and initrd lines are relative to root:

(on hda1)

kernel    /boot/<name of kernel image>

You need a different entry for each kernel, but they can be in the same 
root directory.

The Grub documentation is a bit hard to follow, IMHO.  There was a nice 
tutorial on an IBM site, but I have lost the URL.

Bob

> 
> Christoph
> 
> 
> Bob Nielsen wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, Oct 28, 2004 at 11:53:06AM +1300, Christoph Georgi wrote:
> > 
> >
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>if been following this mailing list now for a while and do get very 
> >>desperate on installing Ubuntu on my Notebook. However, I have limited 
> >>internet access and can hardly download the image (and the CDs will not 
> >>arrive for weeks..). Is there anyone using Ubuntu living in Auckland who 
> >>could by any chance make me a copy of the image?! I'd really appreciate 
> >>it..
> >>
> >>Secondly, I fear that with installing Ubuntu (and its Bootmanager) I'll 
> >>loose access to my Debian installation.. Windows shouldn't be a problem; 
> >>always worked out. I've already been searching for an howto on that 
> >>issue, but couldn't really get my hands onto one. Maybe someone here 
> >>knows how to boot multiple Linux Distros plus Windows?!
> >>
> >>Thanks
> >>
> >>Christoph
> >>   
> >>
> >
> >I have been running Debian (actually Libranet upgraded with a bunch of
> >stuff from Debian testing and unstable, etc.)  I recently installed
> >warty and edited /boot/grub/menu.lst so I could choose that, as well.
> >Here's the essential part of what I have in /boot/grub/menu.lst (Debian,
> >Ubuntu, BeOS and Win 98SE).  It works for me (YMMV).
> >
> >Bob Nielsen
> >
> >------------------------
> >
> >default		0
> >timeout		10
> >
> >title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7 
> >root		(hd0,6)
> >kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hda7 ro hdc=scsi 
> >vga=5 initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
> >boot
> >
> >title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7 (single user mode)
> >root		(hd0,6)
> >kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hda7 ro hdc=scsi 
> >vga=5 single
> >initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
> >boot
> >
> >title		Ubuntu Linux on /dev/hdb1
> >root		(hd1,0)
> >kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro vga=5
> >initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
> >boot
> >
> >title		Windows 98SE on /dev/hda1
> >rootnoverify	(hd0,0)
> >makeactive
> >chainloader +1
> >
> >title		BeOS on /dev/hdb2
> >rootnoverify	(hd1,1)
> >makeactive
> >chainloader +1
> >
> >title  Memory Test
> >root   (hd0,6)
> >kernel /boot/memtest86.bin
> >
> >-------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >
> 
>