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Practice: Boot managers

Exercises for setting up your Linux system and software

Roderick W. Smith, Consultant and author

Roderick W. Smith is a consultant and author of over a dozen books on UNIX and Linux, including The Definitive Guide to Samba 3, Linux in a Windows World, and Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide. He is also the author of the GPT fdisk partitioning software. He currently resides in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Summary: Changing the boot manager configuration lets you boot into different operating systems or different versions of the same operating system. This article offers hands-on practice to build your proficiency in making practical changes in your boot manager's configuration. The exercises and solutions in this article focus on adding a kernel to an existing GRUB configuration and interact with GRUB at boot time.

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Date: 21 Jun 2011
Level: Introductory
PDF: A4 and Letter (22KB | 4 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®
Also available in: Chinese Korean Spanish

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About this article

These exercises and solutions supplement the developerWorks article Learn Linux, 101: Boot managers," which is part of the developerWorks knowledge path "Basics of Linux system administration: Setting up your system and software." You may want to read the "Boot managers" article before working through these exercises.

Overview

These exercises give you practice in:

Adding a kernel to an existing GNU GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) configuration
Making one-time changes to a GRUB entry at boot time

Prerequisites

You must have the GRUB Legacy boot loader installed. And you should have a working knowledge of basic Linux command-line tools as well as knowledge of at least one text editor; you'll use the text editor to make changes to system configuration files.

Exercise 1. Add a new kernel to a GRUB configuration

Imagine that you've made some modifications to the Linux kernel for a new application your company is developing. You want be able to run this test kernel on your development machine without replacing the kernel you use for production work. Practice editing a GRUB configuration to boot a new kernel by:

Renaming or moving an existing kernel
Creating an entry that references this new entry

Exercise 2. Modify GRUB options at boot time

Say you want to try out your new kernel using different kernel options, but you don't want to have to re-edit grub.conf every time you make a change. Not a problem. Experiment with GRUB's ability to accept changes to boot options at boot time, such as:

Entering single-user mode
Correcting typos in an entry
Changing the Linux root partition

Exercise solutions

Follow these solution steps to check your work.

Resources

Learn

The developerWorks article "Learn Linux, 101: Boot managers" (developerWorks, May 2010) describes the commands required to complete these exercises.
The Official GNU GRUB Manual describes GRUB legacy configuration in detail.
Rod's article Migrate to GRUB 2 (developerWorks, April 2010) describes differences between GRUB legacy and GRUB 2.
The Official GNU GRUB 2 Manual describes GRUB 2 configuration in detail.
The LILO mini-HOWTO document describes Linux Loader (LILO) configuration in detail.
At the LPIC Program site, find detailed objectives, task lists, and sample questions for the three levels of the LPI's Linux systems administration certification. In particular, look at the LPI-101 detailed objectives and the sample questions.
Review the entire LPI exam prep series on developerWorks to learn Linux fundamentals and prepare for systems administrator certification based on LPI exam objectives prior to April 2009.
Exam Preparation Resources for Revised LPIC Exams provides a list of other certification training resources maintained by LPI.
In the developerWorks Linux zone, find hundreds of how-to articles and tutorials, as well as downloads, discussion forums, and a wealth of other resources for Linux developers and administrators.
Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts focused on a variety of IBM products and IT industry topics.
Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly on IBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.
Watch developerWorks on-demand demos ranging from product installation and setup demos for beginners, to advanced functionality for experienced developers.
Follow developerWorks on Twitter, or subscribe to a feed of Linux tweets on developerWorks.

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