Re: hardware switch to select from menu

[Jordan Uggla]

On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 1:22 PM, Frans v.d. Klip <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
> I am setting up a home server with a D510MO board (Atom 510, 1 GB ram, 2x
> 1.5TB hd sata, 4 GB internal USB flash disk for OS, on-board Intel video)
> using Ubuntu Server 10.04 in a small case. The system will have no keyboard,
> no display.
> Once operational, most system settings will be made using a web-bases
> management tool (probably eBox).
>
> For troubleshooting or maintenance (disk backup) I would like to boot a
> second OS (like System RescueCD, PartedMagic, Xubuntu) from a reserved
> partition on one of the hard disks, but without keyboard/display there is no
> way to either make a selection from the grub boot menu or the bios boot disk
> selection.
>
> Is there a way in grub (v1.98) to choose from the menu using a hardware
> switch (or data file)?
>
> I can wire up something to the RS232 or parallel port.
> The normal boot disk (with Ubuntu Server) will be on the dedicated, internal
> USB flash disk connector and I doubt the USB boot order in the bios can be
> set to boot (a grub bootable stick) from one of the other USB ports (the
> flash disk has not yet arrived).
>
> Thanks.
> .--
>
> Met vriendelijke groeten / kind regards,
>
> Frans van der Klip
>
>
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>

The simplest solution is probably to use the utility "grub-reboot" or
"grub-set-default". To use either utility you will need to set
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved in /etc/default/grub.

-- 
Jordan Uggla (Jordan_U on irc.freenode.net)