---
name: "update-menu-lst"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "pv-grub-menu"
version: "1.3+nmu1"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/update-menu-lst"
---

# update-menu-lst(8)

program to generate PV-GRUB's menu.lst file

## NAME

update-menu-lst - program to generate PV-GRUB's menu.lst file

## SYNOPSIS

**update-menu-lst**

## DESCRIPTION

**update-menu-lst** is a program used to generate the *menu.lst* file used by the PV-GRUB bootloader. It works by looking in */boot* for all files which start with "*vmlinuz-*". They will be treated as kernels, and grub menu entries will be created for each. It will also create the initial *menu.lst* if none exists, after prompting the user. It will also add initrd lines for ramdisk images found with the same version as kernels found. e.g. /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.5 and /boot/initrd-2.4.5 will cause a line of "initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.5 or similar to be added for the kernel entry in the menu.lst.

After **update-menu-lst** has been run for the first time, the user may need to edit the generated **menu.lst**, in particular the two options **update-menu-lst** uses. Then re-run the **update-menu-lst** script to update the *menu.lst* file using the default's that have been set.

These are the options passed to the linux kernel:\
 \# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro\
 Everything after "kopt=" is passed to the kernel as parameters. See [bootparam(7)](/bootparam/7.md) for more information.

This is the grub device from which grub loads the kernel:\
 \# groot=(hd0,1)\
 (hd0,1) is a partition in grub notation. See [grub(8)](/grub/8.md) for more information.

This option controls if grub should create the alternative boot options in the menu entries\
 \# alternative=true\
 \# alternative=false

This option controls if grub should lock the alternative boot options see [grub(8)](/grub/8.md) for more information.\
 \# lockalternative=true\
 \# lockalternative=false

This option controls if grub should lock the old kernels.\
 \# lockold=true\
 \# lockold=false

This options controls what is used for the alternative boot options, multiple altoptions lines are allowed.\
 \# altoptions=(some description) some kernel command line options\
 \# altoptions=(recovery option) single\
 The description is placed in '()' and the kernel command line options follow that.\
 \# updatedefault=true\
 \# updatedefault=false

This option controls if grub should update the default entry to keep booting the same kernel even if a new one is installed.

## AUTHOR

**update-menu-lst** was derived from **update-grub** version 0.97-66 by Charles Plessy \<plessy@debian.org\>. This manual page was derived by Charles Plessy \<plessy@debian.org\> from the manual page of update-grub, written by Jason Thomas \<jason@debian.org\>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).