Grub Manual

[Lamar Owen]

On Thursday 18 October 2007, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Karl Larsen wrote:
> >    For example look at this working grub.conf entry:
> >
> > Figure 3:
> > title Fedora (2.6.22.9-91.fc7)
> >        root (hd0,5)
> >        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.9-91.fc7 ro root=/dev/sda5  quiet
> >        initrd /initrd-2.6.22.9-91.fc7.img
> >
> > From our work above we are not interested in the title but we want
> > to figure out what the root is. It says hd0,5 which means in words
> > hard drive 1, partition 6 which can be also written /dev/sda6.
> >
> >    Notice kernel and initrd and see they are just written as, for
> > example kernel /vmlinuz... This means the two files are in the root
> > directory.
>
> no, they're not.  but don't let that stop you from disseminating yet
> more misinformation.  it's what you do best, karl.

You know, this thread is nuts.

Karl was indeed using the correct meaning of root in that context, and rather 
than reading the GRUB psuedo-docs and seeing that it's GRUB's fault the terms 
are so misleading, everyone piles on Karl.  Personal attacks, even (it's what 
you do best... Robert, do you have any idea what Karl really does best?  Have 
you bothered to learn anything about him and his EE past?  I have; Karl has 
done some impressive things that I certainly haven't done.  He even has a 1x2 
amateur call; this is a sign of someone who really does have knowledge and 
experience.  Someone who is somewhat imperfectly trying to elmer people in a 
familiar way (to him) and is getting hammered by people who it turns out 
don't know any more than he does).

Try constructive criticism instead. Michael Schwendt comes the closest to 
giving real constructive advice this time around.

In grub.conf, if oh if vmlinuz and friends are not in the 'root directory' 
then why does GRUB confusingly use standard path syntax that clearly shows 
vmlinuz and initrd living in the root directory (from GRUB's point of view)?  
This is GRUB's (authors') fault, not Karl's.

If you multiboot, you certainly can have multiple root filesystems.  Think 
about it.  What is the 'root' directory?  Think carefully before answering; 
what makes the root special?  Is it even special at all?  Can there be more 
than one?  And is the 'root directory' a constant and unmoveable?  (the 
answer is NO, but I digress; that's what chroot and the anciliary pivotroot 
are for).  In fact, on my F7 system that doesn't multiboot, there are at 
least two root directories!  (chrooted DNS server's /var/named tree counts, 
at least from the point of view of named!).  Hmph, what does nash consider to 
be the root directory during boot?

We all need to be more careful in our terminology, and we all need to be more 
patient and less trigger-happy with our oxyacetylene rigs.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Chief Information Officer
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu