Need help configuring GRUB to add the correct windows partition (Ubuntu)
 

I am using Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, and when I installed it, it didn't let me configure GRUB like some distros do. It just so happened that my computer has 2 windows partitions, a normal one, and a recovery one. Automatically, it added the recovery partition as the only windows partition, and now I don't know how to add the normal one to GRUB.

sda1 is the recovery partition, and sda2 is the normal partition.

Post your /etc/grub.conf file

-custangro

Configuring GRUB
 

It involves editing the GRUB config. Please check here:

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

Any luck?? oh and sorry custangro you replied while I was typing :-)

Sorry double posted by accident

yea i got it to work, but i couldn't find the grub.conf file. Also, I was wondering how to make windows the default OS.

you can look for /boot/grub/menu.lst
for making windows default, change the value of default keyword, default value is 0, which corresponds to first OS, next is 1 and so on

Windows....................
The default OS.......................?

Them's swear words around here, you could have used reverse psychology and made it look like you wanted to make Linux the default, and use the response to figure out how-to.

Sorry about that junior Hacker, but other people have to use this computer, and they don't know anything about linux.

Now what do i change?

Okay this is what is says:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
boot

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

It was just a little Linux humor, nothing serious.

My Debian has allot of bullshit in the menu.list, so I just took a small section out of it, you should have a section similar to this:
Any line commented out with a hash (#), is not read by the system, those like "default 0" and "timeout 5" are. The default specifies which entry to boot if you don't select one from the list, making it the default. Grub starts counting from (0) not (1), so the first system in the list is number (0), you may want to change the default to (3) for Windows NT/2000/XP, or (4) for Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. If you want it to wait longer for you to select a system, change the "timeout" to a value you prefer, mine is set at 5 seconds.

Sorry, it should be number (4) or (5) because you have that "title Other operating systems", I'm pretty sure ever time the word "title" is mentioned counts as another entry.

hmm its strange it says its read-only, and I can't save my changes to it

You can also remove that "title Other operating systems:root" if you don't want it to show up in the list and back up the default by (1).

Thanks for your help so far.

the problem is that it wont let me alter the file, so I can't make the changes to it

Nothing strange if you can't change menu.lst, especially with a graphic editor. This is because Ubuntu by default disallows a user log in a root to the GUI. No root privilege no change to any system file.

You have to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst in terminal mode with the text editor like vi by prefix the command with "sudo" like