(1) I think VMware does "real" booting (emulated), it can boot up cd, hd and floppy currently.

(2) Ok, I understand. Does grub1 have a find by name feature like grub2?

I don`t know currently what is better. grub1, grub2 or syslinux. However, thought your help booting is now much less a mystery story for me.

(3) Great info.

(4) Normally grub can chain load any unencrypted bootsector very well. Unfortunately it isn`t working with TrueCrypt. The TrueCrypt bootloader seams to be a bit different from normal bootloaders, violating any standard I have no idea. Bios can boot TrueCrypt bootsector, grub not. I should try grub2 maybe it is even better for this situation.

(5) I add a new question. Do you know how to chain load another bootsector from USB if there is no native support for usb booting from bios?

That`s already possible for no native support for booting from cd. First a linux kernel initializes the device and then chain loades another bootsector. Very compliated, I did not found any success story's on google.