I have WinMe and RH8 in my laptop. I would like to make grub my default boot loader. This is my grub.conf file:

#boot=/dev/hd0,0
default=4
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title WinMe
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

How do I make RH8 my default boot loader. Please help me, I have tried many times with no success.

Thanks

Howzit

u have two ways in doing this:

1. the config file u have is noe all correct but the entries in the following order...

timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img

title WinMe
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

The (0,1) means the following the first digit represents the driver if they r primary master or salve (0) primary master (1) Primary slave (2) Secondary Master (3) Secondary Slave.

The (0,1) the second digit represents the partion number 0= 1st partion etc

The above frub.conf could work for u and it may not because I DON´T KNOW YOUR FULL SETUP, that is why I have given u then explaination so that u may fill in the blanks.

2. The other way of doing this is booting into rescue mode or with bootdisk and type the cmd /sbin/grub-install and it will reconfigure grub for u again.

Good luck

chow

So, how do you boot into rescue mode in order to accomplish this task?
And how do you make grub the default boot loader?
Thank you very much.

Why do you want rescue mode? Can you boot normally now? What is your computer's current configuration & boot sequence? What bootloader are you using now? etc etc
It's hard for anyone to give useful advice without knowing these things.

I was just following the advice of my friend from portugal. But, what type of info. specifically do you need in order to give me a hand. I'm kind of new to Linux, please help. (I used partition magic to partition my HD. I made the Win partition primary and linux logical, then I changed linux to primary partition too but I have not applied the changes I was given)--I don't know
if this helps--
Thank you for your help all...

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Right now, is WinMe located on your first (or only) primary partition?

Is Linux on the first logical partition (drive) in your extended partition?

What is your bootloader now? Grub? or does the computer just boot immediately to Windows?

Can you boot Linux at all? With a floppy?

Can you boot Windows?

Did you simply not install any Linux bootloader to the hard disk?

Your grub.conf looks correct as is, and there's nothing wrong with the way your disk is organized and no reason to change that (mine is organized similarly, but a bit more complicated, and it works just fine). The problem is elsewhere; maybe we can figure it out after you answer these questions.

Yes! just like the first message I posted, that is how the grub file looks like. I was messing with it a couple of days ago trying to solve the task. Since then I have made no changes. The default boot loader is WinMe. Grub is installed and I can boot linux using a boot disk, but I wanted to boot directly without using a boot disk. Grub is the loader I selected at the time of installation.

Thanks

The second line of your grub.conf looks wrong. The number there just designates which one of the "titles" listed below there is going to boot by default. Since you only have two choices listed, default=0 would boot Linux, and default=1 would boot WinMe.

Also, the sixth line is wrong. It should say
root (hd0,4)
to indicate that Linux is at the beginning of your extended partition.

Other than that, you should only have to install grub to the mbr of your disk.

If you start Linux with your boot disk, login as root and enter this command:

/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda

that should do the trick. The only thing that worries me is whether that will leave anything at the beginning of your Linux partition that shouldn't be there (even if it does, it may not matter). I think it will work.

Anyway, that's what I would do. If you're willing to take a chance try it.

PS: if for some reason this doesn't work, you can reboot with a Windows boot floppy, and type
fdisk /mbr
and that will reinstall the windows bootloader as the mbr.

I have another curiosity. Now that there is a new version of RH Enterprise WS, is it worth it getting it and stop using RH8 or 9?

Thanks, I would try the last suggestion, but how about if my RH8 is not an extended partition and is a primary partition would it work? I did this using Partition Magic. Should I make it back to extended?

Thanks

Not unless you're ready to pay them $179 a year. As far as I know, Enterprise isn't free. But for RH9, updates will be available on Red Hat Network until "at least October 31, 2004". After that, I guess we have to switch to Fedora if we want to keep an up-to-date version of Red Hat.
http://fedora.redhat.com/
Or, you could switch right now. I don't know much about it but there's a lot of info on that site.

I'm planning to try out Gentoo and Linux From Scratch also, especially LFS 'cause I want to get more into the guts of linux.


So now WinMe is your first primary partition and your Linux root directory (/) is on your second primary partition?
Where is /boot?
Where is /home?
Where is your swap directory?

Did you reinstall linux, or just move it with Partition Magic?