CentOS4.5 Edit grub.conf

[larrymac]

Hi,
I'm a novice Linux user.
I am trying to edit my grub.conf file. I am logged in as root. It says it is a read only file. I have tried to set permission with chmod 777 and also tried through GUI. Using VI it says it's a read only file. Using nano it will not write either. I have two choices on boot up. I want to automatically go to second automatically. First at the moment is CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-55.ELsmp) and second is CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-55.EL). Any ideas?
Thanks

[nujinini]

Hello!

Allow me to try to answer your question larrymac

Kindly execute as root and paste the output here.

# nano /boot/grub/grub.conf

[Jonathan183]

Can you post the output of

mount
cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg

we can then see how you have partitions mounted, and your current grub config.

[devils casper]

How did you gain root privileges? IIRC, CentOS 4.5 uses GRUB Legacy and root user have full access to grub.conf file.

Try this

su -
nano /boot/grub/grub.conf

In case it doesn't work, post the output of this

ls -l /boot/grub/gr*

[larrymac]

Hi nujinini,

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-55.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-55.ELsmp.img
title CentOS-4 i386-up (2.6.9-55.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.EL ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-55.EL.img

[ Read 21 lines ]
^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Page ^K Cut Text ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit ^J Justify ^W Where Is ^V Next Page ^U UnCut Txt ^T To Spell


Thanks

[larrymac]

Hi Jonathan183


[root@css grub]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

Thanks

[larrymac]

Hi devils casper,

Output from grub file posted previous.


[root@css ~]# ls -l /boot/grub/gr*
-rw------- 1 root root 721 Oct 8 16:40 /boot/grub/grub.conf

Thanks

[devils casper]

As I suggested earlier, have you tried su - to gain root privileges? There is a difference between su and su -.

su -
nano /boot/grub/grub.conf

[larrymac]

Hi There,

Yes I tried the su - command. As far as I am aware I am root with full privileges because I need to be for the application that's running. It states that the file is read-only when trying to make change....
Whe I right-click on file in GUI it states that owner is root and can read & write file!

[larrymac]

My unhappy face icon should have been a confused face....