El Domingo, 30 de Julio de 2006 16:09, Mark Knecht escribió: > Hi, > I would like to limit OS selection at boot time. The machine has > Gentoo and Windows. Gentoo *must* be the booted OS unless a password > is entered. I have tried the password feature in grub but it does not > implement this feature. It implements changing boot time kernel > options, but not OS choice as far as I can tell. > > I also tried adding the hiddenmenu option in grub but it seems that > with hiddenmenu turned on grub never accepts a password. > > Is there a way to implement what I need? If you can provide an > example that would be great. > > NOTE: I currently do this be editing the grub file itself but I'm > looking for something more sophisticated since I'd like my wife to be > able to boot Windows but not my son. > > Thanks all, > Mark
Grub cant do that. It can protect with passwords the menu entries, to prevent anyone from editing them (to boot with an alternate kernel, from another root, in any other runlevel or stuff like that). But it cant protect -as far as I can tell- the entries one by one. You want to be able to boot into linux at any given momment, and grub to ask you for a password if you hit enter when the Windows entry is selected. If that affirmation is correct, then grub cant do that for what I can tell. I use md5 pass in grub, but it just prevent someone from editing the grub stuff and using a different root or kernel line to boot from. You best bet is to use WinXp, 2k, or any other version of windows that can be hardened a bit. Just put a password in all the windows accounts, and do not give any password to your son. This way, you son will be able to see the Winxp login screen, but he will not be able to enter without a password. If your son is smart enough, anyway, the passwords are nothing (he can always boot from the linux partition, locate the keys, and decipher them with jack or something similar, nt passwords are not hard to beat, and a fast search in the net will reveal all that you need to know to do so). So, in which regards children, the best bet is to cut the physicall access to the box. -- [email protected] mailing list
