boot once question.

[malahal]

I want to install a linux distro on a partition of a disk. The system
already has a running linux. What I currently do is copy the install
kernel and the install initrd to my grub partition and add an entry to
the menu.lst file. I **select** the install menu-entry for the first
boot and the actual partition entry for the "second boot" of the
installation procedure.

I tried experimenting with "default saved" and "savedefault <num>" and
using "grub-set-default 1" to boot the install entry only once as
documented in the grub manual, but not many distributions come with
grub-set-default script. Some of the distributions don't even support
"savedefault <num>"

What is the most portable method to boot a GRUB entry only once? I am
targeting RedHat and SuSE distributions for now.

Thanks in advance.

--Malahal.