GRUB: how find partition number (hd0,x)?

Question

i am playing with grub and i change the root using:

root (hda,x)

how can i know what's x for /dev/sda7 ?

fdisk -l

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1958    15727603+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1959        7476    44323335    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            1959        4569    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6            4570        5352     6289416   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            6373        7119     6000246   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            7120        7476     2867571   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5353        6135     6289416   83  Linux
/dev/sda10           6136        6372     1903671   82  Linux swap / Solaris

the problem is that in Gparted view, the order is not like sda5, sda6, sda7, ... but the order is like:

• sda6
• sda9
• sda10
• sda7
• sda8

so what's x for /dev/sda7 ?

Answer 1

First off, you need to realize that in grub, it does not use normal linux hard drive identifiers. Instead, the letters correlate to numbers, starting with zero (i.e. hda = hd0, hdb = hd1, etc).

Secondly, the partition number starts at 0, not 1 like in Linux, so subtract 1 from the linux partition number.

An example is: hda1 = (hd0, 0)

Finally, grub does not differentiate between hd and sd devices, so everything is labeled hd.

Thus, in your case, your grub entry for /dev/sda6 should read (hd0, 5)

Answer 2

Easiest way to be sure is from grub cli and using tab completion.

start by typing... root (hd0,

then hit [tab]
The tab completion should then list the partitions available. pick the one you think makes most sense close off the parentheses and on the next line type kernel /

then hit [tab] again... if the files and directory structure look right you picked the right one... if not.. back up and redo the root line.