[vox-tech] Editing menu.lst

[Jimbo]

I am no linux expert but have messed around with the menu.lst file to do 
exactly what you have described.  If you just want to default to a certain 
OS then this is a piece of cake.

If you have already installed windows then linux the menu.lst file is 
already set up which would be ever so easy to just change the default by 
editing with kate, abi, whathaveyou.  What I have learne is that the first 
os listed is designated as 0 then the next one 1 and so on and so forth. 
This number is seen in the first line of the file behind    default    . 
Count down til you get to the linux distro that you want to use, starting 
with the place value 0, and use that value behind the first line for 
default.

Doesn't hurt to back this file up...just in case.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Scofield" <scofield at omsoft.com>
To: "LUGOD Tech" <vox-tech at lists.lugod.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 10:45 PM
Subject: [vox-tech] Editing menu.lst


>I need some help on editing menu.lst.  I'm trying to change it so that my
> laptop's default is to boot into Linux instead of Windows.
>
> If I want to read menu.lst by executing "less menu.lst" I have no problem.
> But if I execute "vi menu.lst" I get this:
>
>> E325: ATTENTION
>> Found a swap file by the name ".menu.lst.swp"
>>           owned by: root   dated: Tue Jul 10 23:00:09 2007
>>          file name: /boot/grub/menu.lst
>>           modified: YES
>>          user name: root   host name: fir
>>         process ID: 6909
>> While opening file "menu.lst"
>>              dated: Tue Aug 26 18:09:56 2008
>>       NEWER than swap file!
>>
>> (1) Another program may be editing the same file.
>>     If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two
>>     different instances of the same file when making changes.
>>     Quit, or continue with caution.
>>
>> (2) An edit session for this file crashed.
>>     If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r menu.lst"
>>     to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
>>     If you did this already, delete the swap file ".menu.lst.swp"
>>     to avoid this message.
>>
>> Swap file ".menu.lst.swp" already exists!
>> [O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (D)elete it, (Q)uit, (A)bort:
>
> I don't get this "menu.lst.swp" thing.  My guess is that I should choose 
> "E"
> and "edit anyway."  Is this what I should do?  Is there any danger here?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Bob
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