I have etch on my master hda and I just installed kbuntu on my slave hd hdb in doing so the grub boot for kubuntu replaced the boot grub for etch, I'd like to have etch boot grub be the default,
Question how do I switch back to etch from kubuntu? Hope I explain this cleary.
fvs

I'm new to Linux, and I've screwed up a bunch of boot loaders.
Unless you know how to build a boot loader from scratch, your stuck with the boot loader from the last operating system that you installed.
You can edit which system to be default on the boot loader of the last system you installed.

On my system, I have eX Pee on the first drive,
Suse on the 2nd drive and
Umbutu on the 3rd drive.

I wanted to use the Suse boot loader so I installed it last.

The master boot record is installed by Winderz on the 1st drive during the installation.
When linux is installed afterwards, it puts grub into the same place, re-writing the original MBR. .

Ubuntu, and presumably its derivatives, set up grub to recognise other installed systems. Don't know about Debian, but it doesn't look like it from a quick search.
Normal procedure is to run grub-install, but then you will lose access to your kubuntu, and have to hand edit the menu.lst to get it back.
Search the web - I found a heap of tutorials just now.