GRUB configuration

[Hillbillyd]

Quick question: I'm dual booting Windows XP and Red Hat 9. Grub showed 3 operating systems: Windows XP, Linux x.xx, and Linux x.xx-smp. I understand now that the smp is for multiple processors, but here is my question. After updating Red Hat's packages, now I have 5 choices in grub. Instead of overwriting my original kernel, I guess it just added the new one? Is there a way to configure GRUB to only show two choices;Windows XP and Linux x.xx?

P.S. - x.xx is the kernel, I can't remember which one it is so I just used the x.xx.

Thanks in advance

[madcompnerd]

/boot/grub/grub.conf is the file I think.
Be careful with Grub, I've had bad experiences with changing that file....

[Hillbillyd]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[cabu1966]

The file you need to edit is /boot/grub/menu.lst

[kevinalm]

Just to clarify, the file grub looks for is menu.lst , and it's standard location is /boot/grub/menu.lst . But many distro's change the name and location by the creative use of symlinking. Often to /boot/grub/grub.conf .

[Hillbillyd]

Ok, here's what I've got:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-31.9smp)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-31.9smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-31.9smp.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-31.9)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-31.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-31.9.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8smp)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
title Red Hat Linux-up (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


What I'd like to have is this:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-31.9)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-31.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-31.9.img
title XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


Would that work? Just checking to make sure I don't mess up. Thanks

[kevinalm]

The only thing I see wrong is the:

default=4

default works like this:

title

lines are counted top to bottom, numbers starting at 0 . So if you want xp the default,

default=1

[rocketpcguy]

whether its right or not, make a backup.

it seems okay, but youre using the non-smp kernel. if you have 2 processors or 1 processor with hyper threading, choose the other one.

[Hillbillyd]

I just have a single processor. It is an AMD Athlon XP 3000+. Which Linux installation should I be using? The smp, or non smp? Thanks

[XiaoKJ]

the one without smp -- it will slow you down instead if you only have 1 processor.

if at anytime in your life grub's menus fail, do not panic -- you will be given the command line to work with and you can put in the same commands found under titles in the grub config file and boot up as normal to troubleshoot.

Oh, you can just delete the kernels with smp safely, and leave the old kernel option there so that you can switch back if you have trouble.

[Hillbillyd]

Thanks! Worked like a champ!:)