[Linux-users] Grub options menu on CentOS

[Bill Campbell]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2007, C M Reinehr wrote:
>Bill,
>
>On Tuesday 21 August 2007 13:09, Bill Campbell wrote:
>> I'm gradually learning my way around CentOS systems, but haven't figured
>> out how to select different init states from grub.
>>
>> On the SuSE systems I've been using, one can type ``init 3'' at the grub
>> prompt, but CentOS doeesn't provide that prompt.  When I've gone into the
>> grub edit mode, and attempted to set it there, I haven't found the correct
>> incantation to select different init states (I assume init=/bin/sh would
>> work, but that's generally useful only in serious emergencies).
>>
>> I've compared the /boot/grub/menu.lst files on SuSE and CentOS, but don't
>> see anything that looks like it would control this, and the ``info'' pages
>> are, as usual, don't seem to go into any useful detail.
>>
>> How does one configure grub to provide the options prompt where one can
>> specify boot options?
>>
>> Bill
>
>It appears that the answer to your question is in the init manual, rather
>than the grub manual. I'm familiar with editing the grub/menu.lst to boot
>into single user mode, but I had to do a little research to see what other
>possibilities exist. These are lines from my menu.lst file.
>
>This will boot into the default init state as defined in /etc/inittab:
>kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom.5 root=/dev/mapper/vg0-lv_root ro vga=0x314
>
>This will boot into single user mode:
>kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom.5 root=/dev/mapper/vg0-lv_root ro vga=0x314 single
>
>Presumably, if I understand the entry in man:init/Bootflags, you could boot into
>init mode 3 by replacing the word single with 3.
>
>You could have as many boot stanzas in menu.lst as you had run levels defined
>in /etc/inittab. Of course, if you wanted to boot always into run level three
>then you should just edit inittab & define your default run level.

I understand how to edit each grep entry using ``e'', ``b'', etc., but my
question was how to get the grub option prompt at the initial menu where
one can type options for the selected boot line without having to deal with
that rather clunky interface.

On a SuSE system, I can simply type ``init 3'', ``init 5'', ``acpi=off'',
or whatever without having to get into edit mode.  I hate to think what a
customer could do to a system if I'm trying to explain how to edit over the
phone.

Bill
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