On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 10:47:56AM -0700, Eric Shubes wrote: > Nice write-up, June. I'd like to add an observation and a point of > correction. > > June Tate wrote: > > > > > > GRUB DEPENDS ON FILES ON YOUR FILESYSTEM TO BOOT > > > >So if you delete (or reinstall) your Linux partition later, Grub will > >be rendered useless because the files it uses to boot with are > >gone. Also, if you ever decide to change your filesystem after you've > >installed Grub, you will have to reinstall it, since it won't know how > >to read it. For most people this isn't an issue, since they don't play > >roulette with their operating systems (like I do... =op), but it's > >important that you know about it in case a situation arises where you > >end up having to make such a change. So with that said, let's move on, > >shall we? =o) > > Observation: I think this is a good reason why you might want to make > /boot a separate partition. Agreed -- in fact, on my systems, I nearly always dedicate at least 100MB to a /boot partition and ALWAYS make it ext2, mounted read-only. This is done so that it can always be read (crazy filesystems like JFS and such aren't supported sometimes), and is always safe. Of course, if you're a crazy OS-hopper like me it might be a better idea to make /boot a VFAT partition instead, that way you can use grub to boot _everything_. >=o) > >After you've told Grub what to call your menu item with the title > >command, you have to tell it where it resides. The format for > >this is (hdx,y), where x is the number of the physical drive on the > >chain (master on first IDE chain is 1, slave is 2, master on second > >IDE chain is 3, and so on), and y is the partition number. Note that > >both of these numbers start from 0 instead of Linux's customary 1. > > > > Correction: (master on first IDE chain is 0, slave is 1, master on > second IDE chain is 2, and so on) > > I nearly always have to think twice about this! Hehehe -- I re-read that email at least three times before sending it and I only caught that _after_ it was sent out. Go fig, huh? =op The cool thing about recent iterations of GRUB is that if you type part of the harddrive designator (the "(hd" part) and then press [TAB], it will give you autocompletion like Bash does. But yeah, you're right, and yes, it's very confusing coming from a Linux perspective. Interestingly enough, though, most other OSes (Windows (kernel level), Oberon, *BSD, Vista, AROS, etc.) start with 0 instead of 1. Even more intriguing is that Linux starts storage devices at 1, while ethernet and other communications devices start at 0. All I can say is that I guess that's part of the inconsistencies introduced in such a chaotic development model that Linus has chosen. Reminds me of the O_CREAT misspelling in the ANSI stdlib. =op -- June Tate * http://www.theonelab.com * june@theonelab.com