GRUB

From Linux 101, The beginner's guide to all things Linux.

GRUB - The GRand Unified Bootloader

GRUB represents the latest in open source bootloader technology. It is capable of booting Linux as well as many other operating systems.

GRUB allows for multiple chained configurations, graphics, improved bootloader security, and overall greater flexibility than LILO, which is considered to be its predecessor. In addition, GRUB does not need to be reinstalled into the master boot record when the configuration changes, as is the case with LILO.

Configurations are normally kept in /boot/grub. The default configuration name is menu.lst and there is usually a symlink to this named grub.conf for simplicity.

[edit] Using GRUB

Sometime you may need to use GRUB interactively. For example, what if your drives or partitions have changed and your boot device is no longer where it is? You can use GRUB to boot from the new location and then permanently fix it by updating menu.lst

At the GRUB boot prompt press 'c' for the command prompt or 'e' to edit an entry.

Please note that no further development work is being done on GRUB (2005). The focus of effort has shifted to GRUB2, the successor to GRUB.