Editing Grub on SUSE 9.2

NewToLinuxOS · 03-16-2005, 06:08 AM

Hello.
Once again, i come to ask some newbie questions, hopefully you'll be able to help me

1. I consider installing another distro, i want SUSE's grub to show it as an option in the list (currently is XP and SUSE).
I heard that there's something to do with editing the grub file, i'd like to know where is the file, and how should i edit him.

2. That's really noobish of me, but i'm sure that you had some noobish questions back when it was your first time ^^ :
If i want to replace/edit or change a certain file through a GUI interface, without using the command line, is it possible? i mean, usually it tells me that i dont have the privilege to edit/replace/change/whatever the file, i have to log as root, but i prefer to do it through GUI, is it possible at all?

Thanks ^^

Andrew Benton · 03-16-2005, 06:34 AM

Log out of your own save and at the login prompt, log in as the user root with roots password. Only use root for essential maintainance. Don't browse the web as root. Basically, don't take the power of root if you don't need to. It's too risky. One mistake and you may have to reinstall (happens to me all the time...).
To fix grub, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (some distro's call it /boot/grub/grub.conf) and add a new entry for whatever the other distro is that you want to boot. Grub counts from zero so all numbers are one less than you're use to. So /dev/hda4 is (hd0,3) to grub. It uses numbers instead of letters for drives as well. /dev/hdb8 is (hd1,7) in grub. So for example, this boots ubuntu on /dev/hda12 for me

Code:

title Ubuntu
root (hd0,11)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda12 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386

abisko00 · 03-16-2005, 06:40 AM

1. the file is called /boot/grub/menu.lst. The entries in this file point to the kernel and the initrd file that may contain relevant driver (e.g. filesystem, HDD controller, etc.).

2. Sure it is possible. You can always gain root rights, even in the graphical system. To move/edit you could use konqueror in super-user mode. (KDE-menu -> System -> File Manager -> File Manager - Super User Mode). This is actaully the same as if you would start konqueror with the command 'kdesu konqueror' from 'Run Command...'. kdesu opens any KDE application with root permissions within a normal users graphical environment. If you already know which file you would like to edit (e.g. menu.lst), you could open the 'Run Command...' tab and type

Code:

kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst

This will open menu.lst in kwrite as you know it, but with root permissions to save and delete.

young_greg · 03-16-2005, 09:36 AM

Have a look at my reply to 'Cybes51' today, I had a very similar problem and I have offered a solution that worked for me on more than one occasion.Just make sure you don't have a second HD connected when you try out my suggestion.