how to Edit/Write/Generate a Grub menu or menu.lst file GRUB 0.9x

[meka4996]

Tutorial for how to Edit/Write/Generate a Grub menu or menu.lst file for GRUB version 0.9x [GRUB Legacy] for Ubuntu 9.04, 8.10, 8.04, ... (Not for Grub2 in 9.10)
It basically looks like this...

(this is a sub menu, not the Main menu)
### The Start of the Grub menu.lst file
# skipping default settings...

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
uuid 6bb59283-ffd7-4732-b185-f81cb3d14bc9
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=6bb59283-ffd7-4732-b185-f81cb3d14bc9 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6bb59283-ffd7-4732-b185-f81cb3d14bc9
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=6bb59283-ffd7-4732-b185-f81cb3d14bc9 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS

title Main Menu (/dev/sda)
root (hd0)
chainloader +1

### The End of the Grub menu.lst file


(this is the Main menu, not a sub menu)
### The Start of the Grub menu.lst file
# skipping default settings...

# OS installations...
title Ubuntu 9.04 (/dev/sdb13)
root (hd0,12)
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu 8.04 (/dev/sdb8)
root (hd0,7)
chainloader +1

title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

### The End of the Grub menu.lst file


If other OS options are not shown in boot menu:

$ sudo update-grub
or
You can manually edit the menu.lst file:

$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

You can make up the title to be whatever you want:
title Linux XYZ

but you need to find out uuid values, kernel and initrd file path and names.

To find UUID:
$ sudo blkid
To find vmlinuz and initrd file path and names:
Boot from LiveCd, Places -> Removable Media -> the distro partition -> boot folder
or
Boot into the HDD installed Grub, then at Grub command prompt( grub > ),
Then, to find out where the installed linux distros are,

grub> find /sbin/init
(hd0,7) (hd0,11) (hd0,12)
let's go to that partition...

grub> root (hd0,12)
To find out vmlinuz path

grub> find /
then press TAB to see the hints
eventually, you will get

grub> find /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic

grub> find /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic


Copy those file path and names into Grub menu.lst!
That's IT! Easy! Enjoy!

[efflandt]

Thanks. This gave me a clue where to look to add a boot menu entry with acpi=off because my system never has seemed to work properly with acpi enabled (some errors in /var/log/messages and system locks up at times). And the Ubuntu docs give no info on boot configuration. I guess they do not want to overwhelm people unfamiliar with the shell.

Although, everything else seems to work great once I figured out that there is no root login or "su -" and you have to use sudo for system things. I haven't installed Linux for a few years, so I was a bit rusty.