How to MULTI-BOOT with GRUB Legacy

I still use GRUB Legacy but I have no animosity with GRUB2 either . They both work perfectly for me when required . I prefer booting multi-distros with GRUB Legacy no matter if they use GRUB Legacy, GRUB2 or Lilo. 

I will post the "simple" trick I always adopt to "load/boot" my multi-distros

with GRUB Legacy here.

First I will paste my PCLinuxOS`s menu.lst here with some boot lines entries.

title PCLinuxOS 

kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 ro splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img

title antiX
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-5.dmz.1-liquorix-686 root=/dev/sda9 ro nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0 quiet nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-5.dmz.1-liquorix-686

title ALT Linux
root (hd0,10)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-std-def root=/dev/sda11 ro  quiet=1 panic=30 splash
initrd /boot/initrd-std-def.img

The above entries show GRUB Legacy lines from PCLinuxOS in red color text and GRUB 2 lines from antiX and ALT Linux in blue .

Instead of allowing GRUB Legacy to mess with my different installations on various partitions I simply copy the GRUB/GRUB2 lines from menu.lst and grub.conf files respectively and paste them into the master GRUB`s menu.lst file as shown above and all the distros boot without any trouble .

I am sure this "trick" will benefit many people . 

How to Install GRUB Legacy

All major distributions are switching over or have already switched over to GRUB2 , but there are few which are still using GRUB Legacy. Below is a simple method of installing GRUB Legacy on debian which can be used on other distros also using their own package managers .

•  Install grub package    

       # apt-get install grub

• Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (Use can use for sample /usr/share/doc/grub-0.97/menu.lst) 

      #

# Sample boot menu configuration file
   # Boot automatically after 5 secs.
    timeout 5

# By default, boot the first entry.
     default 0

      title Linux
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5
  initrd /boot/initrd.img

(replace /dev/sda5 with your root partition name)

• Install loader to MBR

# grub-install /dev/sda

• Reboot system to check that bootloader works properly
  or not 

ALT Linux | Few useful commands

ALT Linux documentation are rare and difficult to find . I have collected few commands which I use in routine managing my ALT Linux KDE4 Sisyphus installation .

•  For kernel update

# apt-get install update-kernel

Then as root ( su - ) run this command

# update-kernel -t std-def

After kernel update reboot with new kernel .It is wise to keep older kernel in case the new kernel does not work you can boot back to older working kernel .

After kernel update you may update/resetup (especially for NVIDIA videocards)  video driver by running this command as root 

# x11setupdrv

• Video drivers 

  For Installing Nvidia driver run this command as root

# apt-get install kernel-modules-nvidia-$flavour