Installation guide

boot — Boots the operating system or chain loader that was last loaded.
chainloader </path/to/file> — Loads the specified file as a chain loader. If the file is
located on the first sector of the specified partition, use the blocklist notation, +1, instead of the file
name.
The following is an example chainloader command:
chainloader +1
displaymem — Displays the current use of memory, based on information from the BIOS. This is
useful to determine how much RAM a system has prior to booting it.
initrd </path/to/initrd> — Enables users to specify an initial RAM disk to use when
booting. An initrd is necessary when the kernel needs certain modules in order to boot
properly, such as when the root partition is formatted with the ext3 file system.
The following is an example initrd command:
initrd /initrd-2.6.8-1.523.img
install <stage-1> <install-disk> <stage-2> p config-file — Installs GRUB to
the system MBR.
<stage-1> — Signifies a device, partition, and file where the first boot loader image can be
found, such as (hd0,0)/grub/stage1.
<install-disk> — Specifies the disk where the stage 1 boot loader should be installed,
such as (hd0).
<stage-2> — Passes the stage 2 boot loader location to the stage 1 boot loader, such as
(hd0,0)/grub/stage2.
p <config-file> — This option tells the install command to look for the menu
configuration file specified by <config-file>, such as (hd0,0)/grub/grub.conf.
Warning
The install command overwrites any information already located on the MBR.
kernel </path/to/kernel> <option-1> <option-N> ... — Specifies the kernel file to load
when booting the operating system. Replace </path/to/kernel> with an absolute path from the
partition specified by the root command. Replace <option-1> with options for the Linux kernel, such
as root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 to specify the device on which the root partition for the
system is located. Multiple options can be passed to the kernel in a space separated list.
The following is an example kernel command:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.523 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
The option in the previous example specifies that the root file system for Linux is located on the
hda5 partition.
⁠Chapt er 9 . T he G RUB Boot Loader
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