I installed it on my own machine right now and it's very straight forward. I must admit I'm using grub for some years now...

first just normal configure && make && make install

then you have to make a directory /boot/grub and therein a file called menu.lst This is where you put your configuration in. Mine looks like this:

# Boot automatically after 30 secs.
timeout 5
 
# By default, boot the first entry.
default saved
 
# For booting GNU/Linux
title  Vector Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 vga=791 ro video=vesafb:ypan
savedefault
 
# For booting Windows NT or Windows95
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader  +1
# For loading DOS if Windows NT is installed
# chainload /bootsect.dos
savedefault
 
title NetBSD
rootnoverify (hd0,3)
chainloader +1
savedefault
 
# For booting GNU/Linux
title  Vector Linux last kernel
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/hda3 vga=791 ro video=vesafb:ypan
 
# For booting GNU/Linux
title  Vector Linux original kernel
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.org root=/dev/hda3 vga=791 ro video=vesafb:ypan

my disk layout is

/dev/hda1  Win98
/dev/hda3  Linux
/dev/hda4  NetBSD

So the numbering scheme of GRUB is different, as you see. GRUB's /dev/hda1 is (hd0,0). If you use just scsi, so the /dev/sda1 becomes (hd0,0) because of GRUB using just BIOS calls. If you mix ata and scsi it will be more complex, because of the BIOS order of your disks.

I hope my grub.conf is somewhat readable and answers some questions.

Next is to install GRUB in the MBR: grub-install /dev/hda If there are now errors you're done. The great thing about GRUB is, that you have a command line at boot time in case of some errors in your grub.conf.

Good luck

What's better installing GRUB to HD or floppy?

I'd say it does not matter, I did both in the past and it works well.

In general the recommended ways to install (Debian) GNU/Hurd is either to run the crosshurd package (if you have a working Debian GNU/Linux installation), or to install from the K5 ISOs.

The tarballs you might find on the net could be severly out of date, where did you get yours from? The most uptodate tarball is probably this one, but I don't know how well it works. In any case, the Debian GNU/Hurd installation instructions are really helpful and most current. You still might have to adopt them a bit perhaps.

Michael

It's great to find a Hurd weblog. I am trying to use crosshurd but get a boot error after the kernel starts; it appears to say "1 multiboot modules ... kernel panic .. undefined symbol" and reboots immediately.
I have a Duron with 128 Meg ram, am trying to use a logical partition of about 980 Meg. This is the section of menu.lst that I am trying to use to boot the Hurd partition installed with crosshurd. Any thoughts?

title GNU/Hurd (on /dev/hda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/gnumach.gz root=hd0s5
module /hurd/ext2fs.static \
--multiboot-command-line=${kernel-command-line} \
--host-priv-port=${host-port} \
--device-master-port=${device-port} \
--exec-server-task=${exec-task} -T typed ${root} \
$(task-create) $(task-resume)