hda1 = hd0,0 = redhat /boot hda2 = hd0,1 = redhat / hdb2 = hd1,1 = gentoo /boot hdb3 = hd1,2 = gentoo / Since I have redhat on hda and wanted to leave that one alone I installed gentoo on hdb. In the BIOS, I changed the "First Boot Device" from HDD-0 (which is hda) to HDD-1 (which is hdb). In gentoo I configured /boot/grub/grub.conf (hdb2) like this: default 0 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Gentoo Linux (2.4.26) root (hd1,1) kernel /kernel-2.4.26 root=/dev/hdb3 After that, I setup grub like this: grub> root (hd1,1) grub> setup (hd1) When booting, this gives me a garbage screen and grub does NOT work. However, changing /boot/grub/grub.conf into this makes it working: default 0 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Gentoo Linux (2.4.26) root (hd0,1) kernel /kernel-2.4.26 root=/dev/hdb3 So when the "First Boot Device" in the BIOS is HDD-1, grub swaps hd0 and hd1 which is not right. After booting, and running grub, I can see HDD-0 (hda) is hd0 again and HDD-1 (hdb) is hd1 again. I checked this in grub using the following commands and looking at the number of partitions shown. grub> root (hd0,<tab> grub> root (hd1,<tab> Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: see above... Actual Results: When "First Boot Device in BIOS is set to HDD-1, then at boottime: HDD-0 (hda) = hd1 HDD-1 (hdb) = hd0 Expected Results: When "First Boot Device in BIOS is set to HDD-1, then at boottime: HDD-0 (hda) = hd0 HDD-1 (hdb) = hd1 Gentoo Base System version 1.4.9 Portage 2.0.50-r6 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.2-r9, 2.4.26) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.26 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ distcc 2.13 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.3 [enabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58-r1 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe" FEATURES="autoaddcvs buildpkg ccache sandbox" MAKEOPTS="-j2" USE="X apm arts avi berkdb bonobo cdr crypt cups directfb encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mozilla mpeg mysql ncurses oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python quicktime readline ruby sdl slang ssl svga tcpd truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"
You've set up grub incorrectly. The BIOS is not the be-all and then end-all - you must also tell grub about it. See the following URI for information. http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-faq.en.html#TOCq10
In fact - please close this as RESOLVED INVALID. The BIOS setting *should* be ignored by grub, and changing this behaviour will break hundreds of installations.
closing, per robert's comment
