Hi friends, in a previous email, Bernd suggested that a short explanation on how set up a DOS GRUB would be nice.
I'm not a professional writer but I'm pleased to try and document what I understand for others in the form of a how-to.
As far as boot managers go, setting up a DOS based GRUB is very easy. I like that it doesn't need to write the MBR and it consists of only two files:
GRUB.EXE (the program file) MENU.LST (the text configuration file)
You can find the DOS GRUB at a FreeDOS mirror. Look for GRUB013.ZIP
The path I found it at was:
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/boot
The GRUB013.ZIP archive has path names stored in it. It also has some long file names. Don't worry about this too much because the only files you need out of this archive are the MENU.LST and GRUB.EXE plus what ever documentation you want.
You *need" to put menu.lst in C:\BOOT\GRUB, if you don't you will have to specify where it is.
For the purpose of this short how-to we will use the default directory of C:\BOOT\GRUB
Put GRUB.EXE and MENU.LST in this directory.
This DOS based GRUB will not run with all FreeDOS kernels, for this reason I use MS-DOS to run GRUB and from the GRUB menu I can boot other operating systems such as FreeDOS and Linux.
I recommend a menu system for MS-DOS config.sys as a seamless way to run GRUB. Below is a menu *template* you can use. Your configuration will vary, but you will probably want to use the exact grub command as shown in the template. Also you can run GRUB from the command line or batch file. However the config.sys install command works good.
What you don't want to do is load devices before running GRUB because GRUB likes a clean boot. If you find that MS DOS is installing devices all on its own, write back and I'll tell you how to stop it.
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[menu] menuitem=grub, GRUB menuitem=standard, MS-DOS menudefault=grub menucolor=7,0
[grub] INSTALL=C:\BOOT\GRUB\GRUB.EXE
[standard] DOS=HIGH DOS=UMB FILESHIGH=30 BUFFERSHIGH=20 LASTDRIVEHIGH=Z FCBS=4,4 DEVICE=C:\MSDOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\MSDOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS I=B000-B7FF DEVICEHIGH=C:\MSDOS\ANSI.SYS ;DEVICEHIGH?=C:\BOOT\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:SHSU-CDX SHELL=C:\MSDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\MSDOS\ /E:1024 /P
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Basically the idea is to run GRUB and then GRUB will look for MENU.LST in the default location. GRUB doesn't require arguments.
Below is a simple 'tutorial' menu.lst I put together to help you create your specific menu. I've included some examples and comments.
----------------
color white/blue black/light-gray default 0
# grub does almost all its counting starting at 0 # in this menu.lst configuration FreeDOS is the default # because it is first in the list
timeout 25 # boots the default menu item in 25 seconds, you may alter # the time or comment out the timeout option
title FreeDOS
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /freedos.bin# root (hd0,0) tells GRUB we are booting the first partition # of the first hard disk
# chainloader /freedos.bin tells grub to boot from # a boot sector image file # named freedos.bin on the root of the disk
# this file is a 512 byte copy of the boot sector and can be made by # running COPYBS.COM after SYSing the partition with FreeDOS # # you can also get the boot sector to a file with a sector editor, # but COPYBS.COM is simple and fast.
# to avoid naming conflicts with MS-DOS I use the name FDCONFIG.SYS # and the SHELL= statement points to a COMMAND.COM and AUTOEXEC.BAT # file in the FreeDOS directory
title Floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1# the above menu item of course boots to the floppy disk # we use the chainloader +1 when we want to boot from the bootsector # rather than booting from a file
title Linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/linux24 [text cut]
initrd (hd0,5)/dev/initrd# the above boots a linux kernel
title Reboot Computer reboot
# of course this menu option will reboot the computer
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Grub has ability to hide and unhide partitions, activate particular partitions,even 'map' hard disks to make so you can boot off a slave drive and etc.
You can get detailed documentation on GRUB menu commands at the GRUB homepage.
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
I hope this makes things easy for others. If you have comments, note errors or have questions please write back.
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