How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC

[saikee]

The stage1 is the part in the MBR. Without stage2 Grub cannot function at all. Since /boot/grub has stage2 therefore stage1 can be hard-coded to boot that file because Grub can read a ext2/3 partition. If Grub is avialable in the root partition of Linux then Grub can boot its boot sector directly by chainloading. The commands
[code]root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot[/code[
liertally instruct Grub that the root of the system is (hd0,0) where the stage2 and menu.lst can be found. Grub is then asked to sever everything except its 1st sector in the memory and paste into the memory with the +1 position of the boot loader inside boot sector of partition (hd0,). The +1 position is the 2nd sector. That is why I always say Grub is laughingly simple and makes use of the key features of the Legacy partition table better than any other boot loader.

I have suggested to you to use "configfile" to boot the menu.lst. Does this work? If it works then it proves your menu.lst is executable by Grub. If you still get a Grub prompt then may be you set it up incorrectly, say by putting Grub from sda2 or (hd0,1). You can restore the Grub from (hd0,0) again in a Grub prompt

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

and then fire it up immediately by

chainloader +1
boot