I have win98 on hda, and RH8.0 on hdb. I have GRUB, installed by 'grub-install /dev/hdb'. When I use grub interactively, from a grub floppy, the commands

root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb1 hdd=ide-scsi
boot

get me into linux just fine. Same commands in /etc/grub.conf cause errors.

the details.
interactively, when I type root (hd1,0)
I get:
filename type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
which makes sense, 'cause that's what it is.

non-interactively (booting from the second HD using bios), I get

root (hd1,0)
filesystem is fat, partition type is 0x0c

then the 'kernel' command exits with a 'file not found' because I have apparently set root to the windows partition, which is on hd0, I thought.
What's happening?


Anybody know what is going on?

Could you post the results of fdisk /dev/hda and /dev/hdc and /etc/fstab
root (hd1,0) = /dev/hdc1 MUST be where your /boot partition is
You don't mention you have checked your /boot files are ok or output of /boot/grub/menu.1st.

we should be able to just edit this last file.

Because grub doesnt care about which ide channel the drives are on, but the order which the bios sees the drives.
When you set the bios to boot from the second HD you're effectively setting it to hd0(from grub's point of view), note that this is another story once you get inside linux.
I suppose the solution would be installing grub to the MBR of the first HDD, and set the bios to boot from it.