homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Naming%20convention
wiki = http://www.autistici.org/grub/
================================================================================
================================================================================
GRUB = GRand Unified Bootloader
Grub is a Multiboot compliant bootloader. It designed to:
- have a straightforward interface for end-users
- have rich functionality for kernel experts and designers
- Be backward compatibility for *BSD, Linux, DOS, NT, and OS/2
Other features:
-Multiple executable formats {a.out and ELF}
-Chainloading
-human readable config file {menu.lst}
-menu interface
-command-line interface
-auto-decompression when kernel is compressed with gzip
-Access to any installed device. {BIOS must detect device}
Supported Filesystems: (these are used in the /boot/grub/stage1_5* files)
BSD FFS DOS FAT16/32
Minix FS Ext2,Ext3
ReiserFS IBM's JFS
SGI's XFS VSTa FS
==================================================================================
Naming Convention
| ** Devices must be enclosed in () parenthesis. |
| ** Grub does NOT distinguish between SCSI and IDE, they are simply hd's.
Your BIOS boot order will determine which drive is first. |
| Picture below shows our example hard drive's partitions |
| (fd0) |
First installed Floppy disk, usually the only one. |
| (hd0,1) |
0 indicates the first hard drive installed. 1 indicated the second partition. Linux would define this as /dev/hda2 |
| (hd0,4) |
First hard drive, First extended partition. Grub counts extended partitions
from #4 up regardless of how many primary partitions exist. This would fail in our example below since /home doesn't have the required files. /dev/hda3 |
| (hd1,0) |
Second hard drive, First partition. Along with the chainloader command, this would allow us to dual boot to a windows installation on the second disk. |
Specifying a file
(hd0,0)/vmlinuz This specifies the kernel on the 1st drive, 1st partition lowest directory
of that partition.
Configuration Sample
# Set Default boot choice.
default 0
If your menu.lst has multiple choices, this line sets the default should a timeout occur. 0 means the first choice in the list.
# Set timeout value
timeout 30
Once the boot menu appears, 30 seconds will elapse before the default choice is booted.
#Set Fallback Value
fallback 1
If your first choice doesn't boot, fallback can allow an alternative choice. 1 means the second choice in the menu.lst file.
#Boot Windows
title Windows NT
root (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
"Title" is simply what appears on the grub boot menu. "root" sets grub's root to the second hard drive, and that grub
should look for the boot files there. "Makeactive" sets the active boot partition, usually this is done when using
fdisk, but grub overrides that setting. "Chainloader" means that it is it will load another bootloader and "+1"
indicates the first sector of the current partition.