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[tickmike]

I seemed to have made a right mess of the grub on a test machine with 3 hard drives and 10 partitions with 5 PCLinux os on.

I have managed to use the kernel of one to use on another os  so I want to start from scratch.



I have some older PCLin os with (hd0,0) etc, but the new PCLinux 2009 uses a long string of numbers/letters etc. in the menu list

Do you have any tips for doing this please.

And please remind me to which os should have the main menu list.

[tonyappuk]

Is it possible that the long string of numbers is the UUID of the partition? I'm not sure how you find out a particular partitions UUID but I expect Google will help.
The main menu list should be on the last distro you installed but it's usually fairly easy to identify which one it is by noting the number and variety of options offered on the Grub menu and looking for the menu.lst that has the same list.
I hope I've understood your question properly. If not, I'm sure Roseway will put me right!
Tony

[roseway]

I'm sure Tony is right, that the long strings of characters are UUIDs, and also that the Grub menu will belong to the latest installation. If you've manually changed the menu list then I can't offer any simple solution other than careful inspection of what kernel belongs to which installation. Maybe the file dates will help?

[tickmike]

Just made a new menu list out on the last install by copying the details of each different install menu list, but it keeps reading the wrong list on a older install 
What am I not doing. ?.

[tonyappuk]

The grub menu.lst that displays when you first boot is pointed to by the MBR on the hard drive your bios is set to boot from. Is it possible you have changed the boot hd order in the bios? This could account for the edits you made to the menu.lst not being displayed.

You should still be able to identify which menu.lst it is by noting the contents of the displayed grub menu. It might be worth changing your boot order in the bios to each of your three hard drives to see what happens in each case. Otherwise a fresh grub install might be the next move but you need to be sure you are booting from the right disc.
Tony

[tickmike]

Yes the MBR 

I have tried to renew the MBR > rebooted > old grub list  , next try was to set up Boot >> rebooted >  old list again.

I will have a go tomorrow night to sort it out.

[roseway]

You could try reinstalling grub from the command line. Boot into the OS which contains the version of menu.lst which you want to use (in /boot/grub); open a console and type 'su' to become root; then type:

grub-install (hd0)

to install grub in the MBR of the first hard disk.

[tickmike]

You could try reinstalling grub from the command line. Boot into the OS which contains the version of menu.lst which you want to use (in /boot/grub); open a console and type 'su' to become root; then type:

grub-install (hd0)

to install grub in the MBR of the first hard disk.

Has it got to be the first HD ?

This may have confused me  'The main menu list should be on the last distro you installed' because I tried to put it on (hd0,6) the last distro I installed, but the one it keeps using is on (hd0,0).

Are you saying that's where it should be. (hd0,0) ?.

[tonyappuk]

The bios will look initially at the MBR of the first disc (hd0) but this can point to the first partition (hd0,0) or another partition say (hd0,6) where the main part of grub resides. In my own case my MBR on hd0 must point to hd2,6 (I have three drives as well) where I have Debian. I have Mint on hd2,5 which I can select from the grub menu.lst on the Debian install. Mint has its own menu.lst left there when it was the last install but it is never seen. I have always let the distro install grub to the mbr and it sorts itself out, recognising all the existing distros. I'm not sure but I think grub-install hd0 may do the same. The grub documentation is a bit bewildering (to me at any rate) but I expect Eric will explain it!
Tony

[tickmike]

Thanks Tony and Eric.

Re..."I have always let the distro install grub to the mbr and it sorts itself out, recognising all the existing distros"
 Well I do but on the latest PCLinux 2009 Live CD when that installed (I do not know it they have changed the install system ) I was getting sub menu's, distro's not booting, the wrong kernels being used for some distro's.
So I'm trying to sort out the mess.


Is there a limit to how many entries you can have on a grub list ?.
I have 12 showing on grub but 15 on my 'menu list'

[roseway]

There is a limit on the number of entries, but whether it's configurable I don't know. 12 sounds about right, as I've hit that limit myself.

[tickmike]

You could try reinstalling grub from the command line. Boot into the OS which contains the version of menu.lst which you want to use (in /boot/grub); open a console and type 'su' to become root; then type:

grub-install (hd0)

to install grub in the MBR of the first hard disk.

I get   

bash: syntax error near unexpected token 'hd0'       

[roseway]

According to the man page for grub-install, that syntax is correct, but you could try the alternative syntax:

grub-install /dev/hda

[tickmike]

Thanks Eric will try tonight, I have been having internet connection problems as of late.   

[tonyappuk]

Just found a useful site that may help with your grub problems. It's at http://natureheals.info/linux/install/grubm.html
and there are linked pages that help with the mbr. If you have already got this bookmarked, my apologies.
Tony