Chapter 4. Boot Loaders

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4.7.1. Special Configuration File Commands

The following commands can only be used in the GRUB menu configuration file:

  color

normal color

selected color

  Allows for the set up specific colors to be

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used in the menu, where two colors are configured as the foreground and background. Use simple

color names, such as

red/black

. For example:

color red/black green/blue

  default

title name

  The default entry title name that will be loaded if the menu interface

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times out.

  fallback

title name

  If used, the entry title name to try if first attempt fails.

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  hiddenmenu

  If used, prevents the GRUB menu interface from being displayed, loading the

default

entry when the

timeout

period expires. The user can see the standard GRUB menu by

pressing the [Esc] key.

  password

password

  If used, prevents the user who does not know the password from

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editing the entries for this menu option.

Optionally, it is possible to specify an alternate menu configuration file after the

password

, so

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that, if the password is known, GRUB will restart the second stage of the boot loader and use this

alternate configuration file to build the menu. If this alternate file is left out of the command, then a

user who knows the password would be able to edit the current configuration file.

  timeout

  If used, sets the interval, in seconds, before GRUB loads the entry designated by the

default

command.

  splashimage

  Specifies the location of the splash screen image to be used when GRUB boots.

title

  Sets a title to be used with a particular group of commands used to load an operating

system.

The

#

character can be used to place comments in the menu configuration file.

4.7.2. Configuration File Structure

GRUB menu interface's configuration file is

/boot/grub/grub.conf

. The commands to set the

global preferences for the menu interface are placed at the top of the file, followed by the different

entries for each of the operating systems or kernels listed in the menu.

A very basic GRUB menu configuration file designed to boot either Red Hat Linux or Microsoft

Windows 2000 might look as follows:

default=0

timeout=10

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

# section to load linux

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18 5.47)

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz 2.4.18 5.47 ro root=/dev/sda2

initrd /initrd 2.4.18 5.47.img

# section to load Windows 2000

title windows

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

chainloader +1