lilo to grub headaches

harry349 · 05-23-2004, 08:00 AM

I am moving over from LILO to GRUB, and am having difficulty configuring it the way I like. The two changes I made to the default LILO install (RedHat 9) were

1. vga=0x307
2. change the boot message (I for one don't like the graphical boot menu)

Then I just run /sbin/lilo and I'm done.

With GRUB, I was under the impression after doing some research that you don't even have to run anything after editing the configuration file, so I was expecting it to be easier, but am having some problems.

My grub.conf currently reads:

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,1)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title linux (2.4.20-8)
	root (hd0,1)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
	vga=0x307
title win2k
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	chainloader +1

The vga=0x307 line has no effect at all at that location in the file at least. I haven't even gotten to figuring out the non-graphical prompt yet. With LILO there was just a "message=" line, and no "splashimage=" line. I've looked through "man grub", which is mostly useless, there is no "man grub.conf" like there is for lilo.conf, and I've had difficulty finding the information I'm looking for in "info grub". Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

b0uncer · 05-23-2004, 08:22 AM

if the vga=0x307 option can be passed to grub (I don't know, because I haven't used...I guess it can?), it comes at the end of the kernel line, in your case like this:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ vga=0x307

that should work. the options passed to grub are added in the kernel line, at the end..the only "problem" is just to know what options you can pass to grub, I think

don't worry, you'll get to know grub better than you want sooner or later

Andrew Benton · 05-23-2004, 09:16 AM

Try

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ vga=788

Other numbers which may work are 791, 790, 773, 787, 771, 785, 784, 769

harry349 · 05-23-2004, 09:17 PM

Yep, that was it, thanks for the tip. FYI in case it wasn't obvious enough to everyone, 0x307 = 775 = 1280x1024x8bpp.

The key of course was putting it at the end of the kernel line as suggested, thanks.

Any takers for getting rid of the graphical menu? Beyond just killing the splashimage, I was hoping to get back to the LILO style where you just get a simple text message prompting you to type in "linux" or "win2k", in my case. This is definitely a lower priority, but if anyone knows how to do this offhand it would save me some time. Thanks.