How safe is it to edit menu.lst

[David_J_D]

Maybe a silly (paranoid) question, but...

I'm planning to install centos on hd0 alongside Pclos (there's about 500Gigs free).

Currently my boot menu has the following entries:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 failsafe vmalloc=256M
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title 2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs.img

title 2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae.img

I will soon be adding CENTOS to HD0 (Required for my degree course).

What I want to do is edit menu.lst so the boot order will look like this:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 failsafe vmalloc=256M
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title 2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae.img

title 2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs root=UUID=048da2f7-81ca-4bdf-8129-32878b367462 vmalloc=256M resume=UUID=c1700c38-34e5-4233-b836-46fb6ab40624 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs.img

<Centos Entries>
       .
       .
</Centos entries>

Am I likely to stuff Grub by doing this?
If not, is there anything else I need to do to make this work?

All help gratefully received

[Aradalf]

That will probably work. What I would do though, is install the Grub for Centos in it's root partition, not to the MBR, and then chainload to CentOS. An extremely easy way to do this would be by installing Centos, then install the Grub for Centos to it's root partition. After that boot to PCLinuxOS, and then from More Applications > Configuration, choose Redo MBR if you have KDE, Restore MBR for Gnome, or LXDE Restore MBR for LXDE.

[Crow]

What I usually do is: install the grub in the partition and then using a Live CD copy the appropriate lines (stanza) of menu.lst from that partition to the menu.lst that is read at boot

[David_J_D]

Many thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm feeling happier about this. I'll do it over the ewkend and post my success (or otherwise!)