LinuxQuestions.org - multi boot with grub after debian lenny install

I better start from the begininning

1) I had Win XP on machine. Resized hard drive and installed Xandros 4.5OCE upgraded to 5.0 based on Debian Etch. Xandros installed grub 0.97 on MBR of this hard drive. This hard drive is installed on the first SATA channell. Everthing works excelent and I hardly ever boot Win XP any more.

2 Wanted aditional programs to work like Limewire so I figure I will give Debian Lenny a try but don't want to get rid of XAndros and Win XP As I use them for now anyway.

3) I downloaded and read the Grub manual for 0.097 which Xandros uses and appears Debian Lenny uses as well. I read all pertinant info that I felt nessisary I would need. Dam things some 78 pages. I read you can just reinstall grub over an old install with no problems.

4) Installed a second hard drive on second SATA channell. Installed Debian Lenny on it. Debian Lenny installer reported the other 2 operating systems on the first hard drive and proposed to install boot loader on MBR on the first hard drive. Having read this is acceptable acording to Grub manual 0.097 I allowed it to happen.

5) When rebooting after install, Grub works fine, I can boot all 3 systems. It uses the "menu.list" on the Debian Lenny drive on second hard drive first partition, here is the default text to boot d.lenny from menu.list on the lenny drive.

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686

All looks and works well except that It does not refer to any swap file, I don't know why it works but it does. The Xandros boot text does refer to swap files.

6) Fact. There is still a menu.list and boot directory on the Xandros instalation on hd0,5 (sda6).

Now for the problem!

When I was in Xandros there is a utility to modify the boot defaults as time and order etc. I wrongly decided to increse the time to 30 seconds instad of the measly 5 seconds. Aparently when i indirectly modified the Xandros menu.lst it now became the default when the machine boots. After I did this the computer now uses the menu.list and boot directory from the Xandros drive. I figure this not to be a problem at all as it it self picked up the Debian Lenny system on second hard drive and put what seems to be the proper information in as a selection.

7) Debian Lenny just will not boot. looked over and over at the text in menu list (From the Xandros menu.lst)and it looks corect except no swap specified just as in the Lenny install. ( I do have a swap for the lenny install on sdb5). I had previously backed up both d.lennny and Xanros menu.list

8) Copied the text from the 2 boot options fron d.Lenny menu.lst to xandros menu.lst and still says bad file when I try to boot. I introduce syntax refering to the swap file identical to the Xandros except the corect drive and partition numbers. When booting, Grub displays the new options to select from as well as the original installed by xandros. XAndros and Win XP work boot fine.

Here is fdisk -l from my system

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 19457 156288321 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 19458 38913 156280320 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 19458 19650 1550241 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 19651 38913 154726400+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 19127 153637596 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 19128 19457 2650725 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 19128 19457 2650693+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

p4linux:~#

Just can not figure out what to do to boot Lenny. Sugestions welcome, Thanks Jon