Trouble configuring grub2 /etc/grub.d files

[hcaulfield57]

Hello, I was hoping that it would be easy enough to edit grub, because I would just like a simple list of my operating systems on it, no "recovery-mode" or listing one OS as "unknown linux". I like having control of how things work.

I tried to make my own entries on the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file as is described several places on the interet. But, I cannot make heads or tails of how to do this. I've tried, but the computer will not boot from them. For instance:

cat << EOF
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1-486 root=UUID=ab53e916-0157-409d-9f85-187
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.1.0-1-486
}

EOF

Can anyone help me? I wish there was an easier gui way to do this, but it is better to learn the manual way, which is what I want to do. Thank you.

[jayd512]

Have you looked at the GRUB2 Manual on Ubuntus' help pages?
Probably one of the better documents for GRUB2, so it should help you get it squared away.

[hcaulfield57]

Okay, I feel stupid for posting this, especially since I had ALREADY read that Ubuntu guide yesterday. I re-read it and changed the file, and everything works great! I forgot to add the line:

search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root

and, I didn't realize that I needed to change the numbers at the end of the inputs to match the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file. Also I disabled execute permissions on all files except 00_header, 05_debian_theme, 40_custom in the /etc/grub.d folder. So now I only get one option!

[cynwulf]

Hello, I was hoping that it would be easy enough to edit grub, because I would just like a simple list of my operating systems on it, no "recovery-mode"

Bear in mind that recovery mode is useful and convenient when things break.

[hcaulfield57]

Bear in mind that recovery mode is useful and convenient when things break.

I assume that I still have access to it though, because I could always reconfigure grub, since I didn't delete the old files. Regardless it boots without any error messages, which I was getting before (although it still booted), so I'm happy with it.

It may seem kind of stupid, but it's really just an aesthetic thing for me haha.

[jayd512]

Just so you have easy access to recovery mode if needed, and to suit your aesthetic needs, you could make it all a hidden menu.
See this section: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Hidden