Wills' Projects: GrUB

The GrUB bootloader is, in essence, a drop-in replacement for LILO or whatever you use to start the OS you have. Being aware of the multiboot kernel standard and various free/free-ish *nix executable formats, it is able to start GNU HURD, Mach, and other OSes besides Linux directly - and can use chainloading otherwise (should your OSes include proprietary ones).

Quick Install Guide

1. Create a non-bootable floppy with the file system of your choice (one that GRUB can read, ie. ext2, minix, FAT...)
2. Make a /boot/grub directory on it (note: GRUB naming follows *nix/URI convention)
3. Place the GRUB package's 'stage1' and 'stage2' files in the new /boot/grub directory, adding a 'menu.lst' in /boot/grub if required
4. Run the GRUB shell or boot from an existing GRUB floppy and issue `install (fd0)/boot/grub/stage1 (fd0) (fd0)/boot/grub/stage2` (with the new floppy in the first drive).
5. Boot the floppy, store kernels/rescue info on it (it's fairly empty but still useable), or edit the menus with your favourite OS and software ;)

Configuration Options

My 'menu.lst' presently runs along these lines:

# GRUB 0.5.95 wills 12/9/2000
# Edited 25/07/2003 for use on Willow

color brown/black blue/yellow


##
##		Proprietary OS by chainload of boot sector
##

# FAT filesystem can be read by GrUB; NTFS isn't -- use 'noverify'
# (should also 'noverify' "late" files/partitions on LBA disks [v0.5.95])
title		Willow Win95 (C:, FAT)
root (hd0,0)
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot


##
##		Proprietary OS via backup of MBR
##
title		Willow Win95 (copy of MBR)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader (fd0)/willow.mbr
boot


##
##       	Specific kernel direct from (GrUB-readable) FS
##
title		Willow Linux (kpeg2040.lx, umsdos /dev/hda1)
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/linux/boot/kpeg2040.lx root=/dev/hda1 rw
# initrd /initrd.gz
boot


##
##       Linux from /dev/hda6 with /dev/hda1 as /boot
##
title Linux/xk120 (2.2.16-SMP)
root (hd0,5)
kernel (hd0,0)/bzlinux-2.2.16-SMP root=/dev/hda6
# initrd /initrd.gz
boot


##
##	Linux from /dev/hda6 with /dev/hda1 as /boot
##	BEWARE! LILO `rdev`s the kernel. GRUB doesn't.
##
title kingpin linux
root (hd0,5)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6
boot