Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:46:48 -0500

Do I understand this correctly?

In my /boot/grub/menu.lst there is a stanza

title          other: Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-486
root           (hd0,7)
kernel         /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-486 root=/dev/mapper/lovesong-other ro
initrd         /initrd.img-2.6.18-3-486
savedefault

(I edited the title fro what the installer gave me)

Does this mean that grub will look in (hd0, 7), which is the same as /dev/hda8, which is the fourth partition in the extended partition, to find the file /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-486, and then use that file as a kernel to boot Linux, mounting /dev/mapper/lovesong-other on / ?

yes.

> title                other: Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-486
> root         (hd0,7)
 ^^^^

This particular "root" is the "grub installation root" IOW it will load the following line like this

(hd0,7)/vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-486 root=/dev/mapper/lovesong-other ro

> kernel       /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-486 root=/dev/mapper/lovesong-other ro
                                     ^^^^

That root is the "root" of your machine. and it is passed onto your kernel as a command line option.

Greg Folkert

Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005

title  Debian 2.6.8
root (hd0,1)  # = /boot -> /dev/hda2
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386  root=/dev/hda5  # '/' device