NAME

       update-grub - program to generate GRUB's menu.lst file

SYNOPSIS

       update-grub [-y]

OPTIONS

       -y     Assume 'yes' on all questions.

DESCRIPTION

       update-grub  is  a  program  used to generate the menu.lst file used by the grub bootloader.  It works by
       looking in /boot for all files which start with "vmlinuz-". They will be treated  as  kernels,  and  grub
       menu  entries  will  be  created for each. It will also create the initial menu.lst if none exists, after
       prompting the user.  It will also add initrd lines for ramdisk images found  with  the  same  version  as
       kernels    found.    e.g.   /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.5   and   /boot/initrd-2.4.5   will   cause   a   line   of
       "initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.5 or similar to be added for the kernel entry in the menu.lst.

       After update-grub has been run for the first time, the user is required to edit the  generated  menu.lst.
       The  user  must  set  the  two options update-grub uses. Then re-run the update-grub script to update the
       menu.lst file using the default's that have been set.

       These are the options passed to the linux kernel:
       # kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
       Everything after "kopt=" is passed to the kernel as parameters. See bootparam(7) for more information.

       This is the grub device from which grub loads the kernel:
       # groot=(hd0,1)
       (hd0,1) is a partition in grub notation. See grub(8) for more information.

       This option controls if grub should create the alternative boot options in the menu entries
       # alternative=true
       # alternative=false

       This option controls if grub should lock the alternative boot options see grub(8) for more information.
       # lockalternative=true
       # lockalternative=false

       This option controls if grub should lock the old kernels.
       # lockold=true
       # lockold=false

       This options controls what is used for the  alternative  boot  options,  multiple  altoptions  lines  are
       allowed.
       # altoptions=(some description) some kernel command line options
       # altoptions=(recovery option) single
       The description is placed in '()' and the kernel command line options follow that.
       # updatedefault=true
       # updatedefault=false

       This  option  controls  if grub should update the default entry to keep booting the same kernel even if a
       new one is installed.

       The update-grub script can be  ran  automagically  from  the  /etc/kernel-img.conf  file  by  adding  the
       following lines:

       postinst_hook = update-grub
       postrm_hook = update-grub
       do_bootloader = no

       For further information related to /etc/kernel-img.conf, see the manpage kernel-img.conf(5).

SEE ALSO

       grub(8), grub-install(8), kernel-img.conf(5) (contained in the kernel-package package), bootparam(7).

       The full documentation for grub is maintained as a Texinfo manual in the grub-legacy-doc package.  If the
       info and grub programs are properly installed at your site, the command

              info grub

       should give you access to the complete manual.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Jason Thomas <jason@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may
       be used by others).