The GRUB configuration file can be found in /boot/grub/.
[root@root /boot/grub]# ls -la grub.conf menu.lst
-rw——- 1 root root 1037 Oct 28 11:41 grub.conf
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11 Jan 1 2003 menu.lst -> ./grub.conf
If grub.conf does not exist then simply edit menu.lst which should be a file instead of a symlink to grub.conf.
Here is an example configuration:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-37.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-32.0.1.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-27.0.4.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-27.0.4.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-27.0.4.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-27.0.2.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-27.0.2.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-27.0.2.EL.img
The default line is the line we want to change. The first title is 0. So if I wanted title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-27.0.2.EL) to be the default kernel I would set defualt= to 4.
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-37.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-32.0.1.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-27.0.4.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-27.0.4.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-27.0.4.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-27.0.2.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-27.0.2.EL ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-27.0.2.EL.img