update-menu-lst(8)

💖 update-menu-lst — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, welcome to update-menu-lst from the System Manager's Manual, section 8. it's a lil script, it's a lil icon, and it literally writes your boot menu for you. let's get into it 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

update-menu-lst — the program that generates PV-GRUB's menu.lst file. that's the whole job. that's the gig. 💅

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

update-menu-lst

no flags, no args, no drama. you just run it. periodt. ✨

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so update-menu-lst is the program that generates the menu.lst file that the PV-GRUB bootloader reads. the way it works? it goes digging around in /boot looking for every single file whose name starts with "vmlinuz-". those get treated as kernels, and grub menu entries get created for each one. 🧚

it will also create the initial menu.lst if there isn't one already — but only after prompting you first, because consent is cute. 💖

and it doesn't stop there: it also adds initrd lines for the ramdisk images it finds that share the same version as the kernels it found. like, for example, /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.5 and /boot/initrd-2.4.5 together will cause a line of "initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.5 or similar to be added for that kernel's entry in the menu.lst. matching versions, matching energy. 🌈

after update-menu-lst has been run for the very first time, you might need to go edit the generated menu.lst yourself — especially the two options that update-menu-lst uses. then just re-run the update-menu-lst script to update the menu.lst file using the default's that have been set. (yes, "default's". the original said it that way and i'm not about to rewrite the source code of the universe. 🙈)

---

🔥 the options, bestie 🔥

these are the options passed to the linux kernel:

# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro

everything after "kopt=" gets passed to the kernel as parameters. want the lore? see bootparam(7). 📖

this is the grub device from which grub loads the kernel:

# groot=(hd0,1)

(hd0,1) is a partition in grub notation. see grub(8) for more information. 👑

this option controls if grub should create the alternative boot options in the menu entries:

# alternative=true
# alternative=false

this option controls if grub should lock the alternative boot options — see grub(8) for more information:

# lockalternative=true
# lockalternative=false

this option controls if grub should lock the old kernels:

# lockold=true
# lockold=false

this options controls what is used for the alternative boot options, and multiple altoptions lines are allowed:

# altoptions=(some description) some kernel command line options
# altoptions=(recovery option) single

the description goes inside the '()', and the kernel command line options follow right after it. 🎀

# updatedefault=true
# updatedefault=false

this option controls if grub should update the default entry to keep booting the same kernel even if a new one is installed. so like, it keeps your fave kernel as the main character even when a new one pulls up. 💅

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

update-menu-lst was derived from update-grub version 0.97-66 by Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>. this manual page was derived by Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> from the manual page of update-grub, written by Jason Thomas <jason@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). shoutout to the OGs, no cap. 🫶

---

and that's the whole vibe check, bestie — this manual page came to you from Charles Plessy, dated August 11, 2013, under the update-menu-lst(8) name. slay, stay bootable, and don't forget to re-run the script after you edit those defaults. mwah 💋💖