I was wondering what the purpose is for the different options on the boot screen (antiX 13.2 Full). For example:

Line 1: antix at sda1, kernel 3.7.10-antix.5-amd64-smp
boot options: root=/dev/sda1 quiet

Line 2: Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.7.10-antix.5-amd64-smp
boot options: root=UUID=XXXXXXXX ro

The options showed up after I ran sudo update-grub.

I think thats just grub's interpretation of what was wanted based on what grub found.

If I run update-grub from Manjaro I get different results. Same situation if I run it from Salix. Things get very different if I run it from one that uses legacy grub or grub4dos or Lilo.

IMO, its best to have one main distribution that you trust you can always get running from CD or whatever, that you like how its boot system creates the menu, or is at least acceptable, and then always use that OS to control the boot.

Just my opinion as a linux newbie with ooodles of distros mixed with windows etc...

PS: anymore I make a copy of what update-grub creates, and use an editor like geany to copy/paste sections of it into my own custom grub.cfg which I also save a copy of in case grub overwrites it. I do that because I'm not real happy with what grub created, but can't find anything that's better.

As roky mentioned in another thread, we were still using grub-legacy for antiX-13.2. These changes are related to the change from grub-legacy to grub-2 which was fueled in part by changes in the kernel which were the result of changes in hardware. In particular, the mapping between device nodes /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc, and the physical devices is no longer guaranteed to be stable. On some systems with newer kernels, if you boot from a LiveUSB then that usb device will be sda but if you boot from the hard drive then it becomes sda.

Therefore we are forced to use UUIDs (or labels) to identify partitions. You will see a similar change in the fstab file. We held on to the older, simpler way (with cold dying hands?) for as long as possible. Most of the Linux world migrated to the newer way of using UUIDs before it was absolutely required.

Yeah, I'm one of those that hate the UUID's too.

I put in an SSD in my fastest laptop, and use dd to copy partitions so that I have a hard drive copy of whats on the SSD, and I'm pretty sure it gets the same UUID as the SSD copy, but because of Windows, the SSD has to be in the 2nd bay, even though I now run everything from SSD except windows. That means that I need to be real careful which copy I'm actually looking at...

'They' have almost deprecated /dev/sd* & /dev/hd*, which is 'their' intention.
('They' being the Linux devs.)

UUIDs work everywhere as expected but aren't 'human friendly', but you can also use 'labels' in your configs.

I go to the trouble of putting a unique label on each partition of each drive, but grub/osprober don't use it. It would be great that if a label was present, it could be incorporated in the menu text for that that partition.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Features"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual ... l#Features"
====================================

(see 5.3 Multi-boot manual config)

Thank you everyone for your replies.

BitJam wrote:As roky mentioned in another thread, we were still using grub-legacy for antiX-13.2. These changes are related to the change from grub-legacy to grub-2 which was fueled in part by changes in the kernel which were the result of changes in hardware. In particular, the mapping between device nodes /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc, and the physical devices is no longer guaranteed to be stable. On some systems with newer kernels, if you boot from a LiveUSB then that usb device will be sda but if you boot from the hard drive then it becomes sda.

Therefore we are forced to use UUIDs (or labels) to identify partitions. You will see a similar change in the fstab file. We held on to the older, simpler way (with cold dying hands?) for as long as possible. Most of the Linux world migrated to the newer way of using UUIDs before it was absolutely required.

That makes things a lot clearer. Being a new user used to a regular grub boot menu, the antiX boot menu was a bit confusing. However, now that I understand the reason, it makes sense.

13.2 has grub2 in the repo via synaptic, if that might help.

Grub and Grub2 have presented a huge learning curve for me. Since my laptop has several different partitions with several different distros on it (some are 32 bit and 64 bit variations of the same distro), learning to work Grub and Grub2 became a necessity when multi-booting. Things I did learn to make it easier with me.

1_ Use Gpart to label the partitions. That is your street map. You have to know where you are.

2_ Perform a"update grub" in each partition after an"apt-get dist-upgrade". This will make sure you have the newest setup if"dist-upgrade" has made any changes. Also, it will make sure the UUID is correct for that partition.

3_ Go through each distro's grub.cfg or menu.lst in / boot/grub and change the"Debian GNU/Linux" to read"your distro name Linux". Here you list your distro in the Grub/Grub2.

4_ Perform the"update grub" on the main distro last so that the Grub/Grub2 reference in the MBR is correct.

5_ Go through the Grub/Grub2 menu.lst/grub.cfg (depending on the main distro) to make sure the distros are labelled correctly. What can you do if you have 12 listings of"Debian GNU/Linux" on your choice menu?

6_ ALWAYS save a copy of your menu.lst/grub.cfg as"menu-org.lst" or"grun-org.cfg". If you messed up, you have a reference point to go back to when trying to correct things.

7_ Have a LiveCD or usb to use in the event the new distro you install decides to take over the grub menu. Lots of Ubuntu derivatives and Red Hat assume they are suppose to take over your system. And is it fun to try to correct that mess. Ubuntu does have a"Boot Repair" cd available so you can correct this problem. I have used it many times.

8_ Read more and learn. Take notes. You don't have to be an expert on Grub/Grub2. You just need to know what to do to correct the problems.