Install and Boot Computer with GRUB

GRUB is the standard boot loader in the latest releases of Debian. However, another boot loader could have been installed on your computer.

Every operating system needs a boot loader in order to start up. The boot loader got installed with the rest of Debian. A Linux operating system is often started with either GRUB or LILO. Several others are out there on the Internet, and Debian can use most of them.

GRUB is a modern boot loader and compared to LILO, it is easier to maintain. One of the reasons being that GRUB - without any user interaction - figures out which operating systems are installed on the computer by reading a specific configuration file.

For various reasons LILO or another boot loader could have been installed on the computer instead of GRUB. If LILO is installed, it appears just before the kernel starts. Look for a text label in the upper left corner of the screen saying 'LILO'.

Installing GRUB
At first you need to install GRUB on your hard drive:

Next you need to put GRUB in the Master Boot Record, MBR, to let the computer load it during the boot process. It is done with this command where '/dev/hda' is the first hard drive in the computer:

The computer is almost ready to use GRUB to boot the operating system. GRUB just needs a configuration file telling it which operations are available on the computer. The name of the configuration file is 'menu.lst', and it is located in '/boot/grub'. You can automatically create the file with this command:

If you have done everything correctly, GRUB is now able to boot Debian and other operating systems. Before you purge LILO from the system you must reboot the computer to make sure GRUB works the way it should. You can safely remove LILO when Debian is up running again: