The graphical splash screen with the boot menu is based on the GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst, which contains all information about all partitions or operating systems that can be booted by the menu.

Every time the system is booted, GRUB loads the menu file from the file system. For this reason, GRUB does not need to be reinstalled after every change to the file. Use the YaST boot loader to modify the GRUB configuration as described in Section 18.2, “Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST”.

The menu file contains commands. The syntax is very simple. Every line contains a command followed by optional parameters separated by spaces like in the shell. For historical reasons, some commands permit an = in front of the first parameter. Comments are introduced by a hash (#).

To identify the menu items in the menu overview, set a title for every entry. The text (including any spaces) following the keyword title is displayed as a selectable option in the menu. All commands up to the next title are executed when this menu item is selected.

The simplest case is the redirection to boot loaders of other operating systems. The command is chainloader and the argument is usually the boot block of another partition, in GRUB block notation. For example:

chainloader (hd0,3)+1

The device names in GRUB are explained in Section 18.1.1.1, “Naming Conventions for Hard Disks and Partitions”. This example specifies the first block of the fourth partition of the first hard disk.

Use the command kernel to specify a kernel image. The first argument is the path to the kernel image in a partition. The other arguments are passed to the kernel on its command line.

If the kernel does not have built-in drivers for access to the root partition or a recent Linux system with advanced hotplug features is used, initrd must be specified with a separate GRUB command whose only argument is the path to the initrd file. Because the loading address of the initrd is written into the loaded kernel image, the command initrd must follow after the kernel command.

The command root simplifies the specification of kernel and initrd files. The only argument of root is a device or a partition. This device is used for all kernel, initrd, or other file paths for which no device is explicitly specified until the next root command.

The boot command is implied at the end of every menu entry, so it does not need to be written into the menu file. However, if you use GRUB interactively for booting, you must enter the boot command at the end. The command itself has no arguments. It merely boots the loaded kernel image or the specified chain loader.

After writing all menu entries, define one of them as the default entry. Otherwise, the first one (entry 0) is used. You can also specify a time-out in seconds after which the default entry should boot. timeout and default usually precede the menu entries. An example file is described in Section 18.1.1.2, “An Example Menu File”.

(hd0,0)   first primary partition of the first hard disk
(hd0,1)   second primary partition
(hd0,2)   third primary partition
(hd0,3)   fourth primary partition (usually an extended partition)
(hd0,4)   first logical partition
(hd0,5)   second logical partition

(hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz

gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title linux
   root (hd0,4)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 vga=791 resume=/dev/sda9
   initrd /boot/initrd

title windows
   rootnoverify (hd0,0)
   chainloader +1

title floppy
   rootnoverify (hd0,0)
   chainloader (fd0)+1

title failsafe
   root (hd0,4)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/sda7 ide=nodma \
   apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 3 noresume
   initrd /boot/initrd.shipped

18.1.1.3. Editing Menu Entries during the Boot Procedure¶

In the graphical boot menu, select the operating system to boot with the arrow keys. If you select a Linux system, you can enter additional boot parameters at the boot prompt. To edit individual menu entries directly, press Esc to exit the splash screen and get to the GRUB text-based menu then press E. Changes made in this way only apply to the current boot and are not adopted permanently.

	Keyboard Layout during the Boot Procedure
The US keyboard layout is the only one available when booting. See Abbildung „US-Tastaturbelegung“ (↑Start-Up).

Editing menu entries facilitates the repair of a defective system that can no longer be booted, because the faulty configuration file of the boot loader can be circumvented by manually entering parameters. Manually entering parameters during the boot procedure is also useful for testing new settings without impairing the native system.

After activating the editing mode, use the arrow keys to select the menu entry of the configuration to edit. To make the configuration editable, press E again. In this way, edit incorrect partitions or path specifications before they have a negative effect on the boot process. Press Enter to exit the editing mode and return to the menu. Then press B to boot this entry. Further possible actions are displayed in the help text at the bottom.

To enter changed boot options permanently and pass them to the kernel, open the file menu.lst as the user root and append the respective kernel parameters to the existing line, separated by spaces:

title linux
   root(hd0,0)
     kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 additional parameter
   initrd /initrd

GRUB automatically adopts the new parameters the next time the system is booted. Alternatively, this change can also be made with the YaST boot loader module. Append the new parameters to the existing line, separated by spaces.

The file device.map maps GRUB and BIOS device names to Linux device names. In a mixed system containing PATA (IDE) and SCSI hard disks, GRUB must try to determine the boot sequence by a special procedure, because GRUB may not have access to the BIOS information on the boot sequence. GRUB saves the result of this analysis in the file /boot/grub/device.map. Example device.map files for a system on which the boot sequence in the BIOS is set to PATA before SCSI could look as follows:

(fd0)  /dev/fd0
(hd0)  /dev/sda
(hd1)  /dev/sdb

or

(fd0)  /dev/fd0
(hd0)  /dev/disk-by-id/DISK1 ID
(hd1)  /dev/disk-by-id/DISK2 ID

Because the order of PATA (IDE), SCSI and other hard disks depends on various factors and Linux is not able to identify the mapping, the sequence in the file device.map can be set manually. If you encounter problems when booting, check if the sequence in this file corresponds to the sequence in the BIOS and use the GRUB prompt to modify it temporarily, if necessary. After the Linux system has booted, the file device.map can be edited permanently with the YaST boot loader module or an editor of your choice.

After manually changing device.map, execute the following command to reinstall GRUB. This command causes the file device.map to be reloaded and the commands listed in grub.conf to be executed:

grub --batch < /etc/grub.conf

The third important GRUB configuration file after menu.lst and device.map is /etc/grub.conf. This file contains the commands, parameters and options the GRUB shell needs for installing the boot loader correctly:

setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 --force-lba (hd0,1) (hd0,1)
   quit

This command tells GRUB to automatically install the boot loader to the second partition on the first hard disk (hd0,1) using the boot images located on the same partition. The --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 parameter is needed to install the stage2 image from a mounted file system. Some BIOSes have a faulty LBA support implementation, --force-lba provides a solution to ignore them.

This configuration file is only used when configuring the bootloader with YaST and every time a new kernel is installed. It is evaluated by the perl-bootloader library which modifies the bootloader configuration file (for example /boot/grub/menu.lst for GRUB) accordingly. /etc/sysconfig/bootloader is not a GRUB specific configuration file - the values are applied to any bootloader installed on openSUSE.

	Bootloader Configuration after a Kernel Update
Every time a new kernel is installed, the perl bootloader writes a new bootloader configuration file (for example /boot/grub/menu.lst for GRUB) using the defaults specified in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader. If you are using a customized set of kernel parameters, make sure to adjust the relevant defaults in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader according to your needs.

Even before the operating system is booted, GRUB enables access to file systems. Users without root permissions can access files in your Linux system to which they have no access once the system is booted. To block this kind of access or to prevent users from booting certain operating systems, set a boot password.

	Boot Password and Splash Screen
If you use a boot password for GRUB, the usual splash screen is not displayed.

As the user root, proceed as follows to set a boot password:

To change the system that is booted by default, proceed as follows:

To modify the location of the boot loader, follow these steps:

The boot loader does not boot the default system immediately. During the time-out, you can select the system to boot or write some kernel parameters. To set the boot loader time-out, proceed as follows:

Using this YaST module, you can also set a password to protect booting. This gives you an additional level of security.

If your computer has more than one hard disk, you can specify the boot sequence of the disks to match the BIOS setup of the machine (see Section 18.1.2, “The File device.map”). To do so, proceed as follows:

Advanced boot options can be configured via Boot Loader Installation+Boot Loader Options. Normally, it should not be necessary to change the default settings.

Set the boot loader type in Boot Loader Installation. The default boot loader in openSUSE is GRUB. To use LILO or ELILO, proceed as follows:

	LILO is unsupported
Using LILO is not recommended—it is unsupported on openSUSE. Only use it in special cases.

During the conversion, the old GRUB configuration is saved to the disk. To use it, simply change the boot loader type back to GRUB and choose Restore Configuration Saved before Conversion. This action is available only on an installed system.

	Custom Boot Loader
To use a boot loader other than GRUB or LILO, select Do Not Install Any Boot Loader. Read the documentation of your boot loader carefully before choosing this option.