Grub Noob

[RealG187]

okay my Pentium III has dual boot XP and Ubutnu 7.10


The way its setup is that it shows the Grub menu for 10 seconds and if no key is pressed Ubuntu loads, XP is at the bottom. What if I would want XP to boot instead now? (I need it for drivers and stuff, Lexmark x3350). I use this machine over VNC for burning (laptops burner is messed up) and printing. I cannot print.

If I could print I would remove Windows....

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub Noob

Try this:

How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
See ONLY (for now) the part you need, which is Reply #1:
--- HOW To: Change the Default Operating System (Also: Changing the timeout, boot menu, and other tips) Reply #1

[RealG187]

Re: Grub Noob

That seems complicated....

So do I change my main OS to windows? Will this:

make windows on the top, make it boot automatically, or both? I just want the second one.

[rodh]

Re: Grub Noob

To set other OS (windows) to default

"sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Then find section

##default num
#set the Default entry to entry number NUM. Numbering starts from Zero
#the entry zero is the default if the command is no used
#WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to "saved" or
#your array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

NOTE: the last line is the important one, typically windows will be 4 so you would change the 0 to a 4 in the last line.

This grouping is ussually about 3 - 4 paragraphs down from the top of the file.

Have a good evening.

[Fintan]

Re: Grub Noob

Sorry to be a pain but:

To set other OS (windows) to default

"sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Please don't do that.

gedit is for gnome (of course if you are running gnome you'r okay)

furthermore don't use "sudo" for kde apps and gui apps.
Use: kdesudo

so in KDE do alt+F and type:

kdesudo kate

->password.

The edit your file as suggested.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub Noob

If you post your boot menu (/boot/grub/menu.lst), we could tell you what to change.

In Kubuntu
Open Konqueror
type in the location window:
/
and press Enter
click boot
click grub
click menu.lst
copy all of it
paste it here

Then someone can tell you the best options.

Or, using kdesu
kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst
will open it for you (as root).

[marshallbanana]

Re: Grub Noob

NOTE: the last line is the important one, typically windows will be 4 so you would change the 0 to a 4 in the last line.

Just figured I'd mention that you start counting from 0.

[RealG187]

Re: Grub Noob

I think I am using Ubuntu on there with Gnome, I have yet to install KDE.

SO what happens is, even when I boot Windows, I deal with Linux? So it boots up linux to start grub then loads windows from there, so the changes are made in Linux?

[Fintan]

Re: Grub Noob

In a word and put simply: no.
Grub is just a boot loader. and resides in the MBR (master Boot Record) of the first partition on the first disk (or wherever you put it). It does not "start"=boot linux unless you tell it to.

It just sits there waiting for you to tell it what to do.

What it does do is read the menu.lst file so it knows what to do.

[RealG187]

Re: Grub Noob

but the menu.lst file is on the linux partition and drive...

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub Noob

Hi RealG187, I think you need to tell us what's on your mind—what are your goals here, how can we help? Fact is, GRUB is a bootloader and it overwrote your MBR where the XP bootloader used to live. The XP bootloader is gone. To restore it, use your XP CD. For a full and lucid explanation of how GRUB's stages work, see the GRUB Manual:
GRUB, GNU GRUB Manual 0.97 at: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/

[Ptero-4]

Re: Grub Noob

but the menu.lst file is on the linux partition and drive...

The menu.lst file gets copied to the mbr along with the grub binary stub when you do update-grub.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub Noob

not exactly

GRUB Stage_1 IPL goes into the first 446 bytes of the MBR (+ 64 B for partition table + a 2-Byte signature AA 55 = 512 B = first sector = the MBR); then, in another 15 sectors following the MBR (or is that 17?), goes Stage_1.5, all within the first normally vacant 63 sectors; Stage_1.5 points at Stage_2 which is located in the boot sector of the Kubuntu/Linux partition (or in a boot partition or in a dedicated GRUB partition) and contains lots of code and the menu.lst.


I'm still not sure what the goal here is; if you want a bibliography on this stuff (how GRUB works), please post, and I'll put one together for you should you just want to learn more about it (for fun ... ).

[RealG187]

Re: Grub Noob

What is the MBR, the boot sector? Is it part of the file system?

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub Noob

The MBR is not part of the file system. That's why the function dd is used to “copy” it (whereas cp is a file system command). It is the first 512-byte sector of a drive (hard drive or flash drive). It's contents is as I described in the post above and contains some bootloader code (446 bytes), a partition table (64 bytes = four 16-Byte parts, one for each primary partition), and two-bytes for a hexadecimal signature or end-of-file code 55 AA. The 446-byte bootloader code is the IPL = Initial Program Loader code. There will also be more bootloader code elsewhere (following the MBR and/or in the boot sector and/or following the boot sector).

The boot sector is the first sector (= 512 Bytes) of the OS partition.


Booting, How To Multi-Boot Operating Systems:
http://www.vsubhash.com/writeups/multiboot_os.asp
(Very informative in general about booting, MBR, bootloaders, and booting)

MBR Making sense of the dd MBR printout (and follow ALL of Starman's links re MBR/boot sectors): http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/GRUB.htm
GRUB, how it fits into the HDD layout on a PC: http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/disk
GRUB, Introductory Tutorial, by Wayne Marshall http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4622

And I think Herman has done some stuff on MBR (his GRUB work is a standard reference now)
Bigpond, home: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/