Re: Problems installing Woody from Hard Disk using GRUB

[Frank Murphy <murphyf@cs.ucdavis.edu>]

> >   What is wrong with the following setup for Grub? I always ended up with 
> > problems booting from hda5, which is not a partition on my system. (hda1
> > is windows, hda2 is swap, hda3 is going to be Sarge, and hda4 is Woody.)
> >
> > Here's my Grub config:
> > 
> > title Woody install
> > kernel (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/linux-2.4.bin
> > initrd (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/root-2.4.bin
> > 
> > Any ideas as to why this doesn't work? I end up with a kernel panic
> > because the root filesystem can't be mounted.
> >
> > Frank
>
>     Have you tried telling the kernel where the root device is?
>
>      kernel (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/linux-2.4.bin root=/dev/hda4
>
>      Or go the grub command line and see if you can't boot by hand.
>      The ability to get to a command line when having boot problems is
>      the reason I use grub.

I have tried the root= parameter. The problem is that the kernel should be 
using the initrd for it's initial filesystem. If I give root=/dev/hda4, then 
it boots into my normal system, not into the Debian installer. What is the 
required value for the root= parameter to get the kernel to use the init rd?

Or is this a limitation of Grub? I notice that the Debian install guide says 
nothing of installing via Grub.

Frank