As the user root, proceed as follows to set a boot password:
At the root prompt, encrypt the password using grub-md5-crypt:
Retype password: ****
Paste the encrypted string into the global section of the file menu.lst:
color white/blue black/light-gray
password --md5 $1$lS2dv/$JOcHkLosIn7CJk9xShzzJVw/
Now GRUB commands can only be executed at the boot prompt after pressing P and entering the password. However, users can still boot all operating systems from the boot menu.
To prevent one or several operating systems from being booted from the boot menu, add the entry lock to every section in menu.lst that should not be bootable without entering a password. For example:
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 vga=791
After rebooting the system and selecting the Linux entry from the boot menu, the following error message is displayed:
Error 32: Must be authenticated
Press Enter to enter the menu. Then press P to get a password prompt. After entering the password and pressing Enter, the selected operating system (Linux in this case) should boot.