diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
index 6457516ce..4a587341b 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
@@ -132,13 +132,11 @@ sub getipaddr {
 sub updateGrub {
 	my $args = shift @_;
 
-	# this is the entry we want in the grub file
-	my @entry = (
-		"title $XCATNETBOOTTITLE\n",
-		"\troot (hd0,0)\n",
-		"\tkernel " . $args->{kernelpath} . ' ' . $args->{kernelparms} . "\n",
-		"\tinitrd " . $args->{initrdpath} . "\n",
-		);
+	# how we specify the path for the kernel and initrd is different on redhat and suse
+	my $fileprefix;
+	if (isRedhat()) { $fileprefix = '/'; }
+	elsif (isSuse()) { $fileprefix = '/boot/'; }
+	else { die "Error: currently only support red hat or suse distros.\n"; }
 
 	# open the grub file and see if it is in there or if we have to add it
 	my $grubfile = findGrubPath();
@@ -147,6 +145,17 @@ sub updateGrub {
 	my @lines = <FILE>;
 	close FILE;
 
+	# this is the entry we want in the grub file
+	my @rootlines = grep(/^\s+root\s+/, @lines);		# copy one of the existing root lines
+	if (!scalar(@rootlines)) { die "Error: can't find an existing line for 'root' in the grub config file\n"; }
+	my ($rootline) = $rootlines[0] =~ m/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/;
+	my @entry = (
+		"title $XCATNETBOOTTITLE\n",
+		"\t$rootline\n",
+		"\tkernel " . $fileprefix . $args->{kernelpath} . ' ' . $args->{kernelparms} . "\n",
+		"\tinitrd " . $fileprefix . $args->{initrdpath} . "\n",
+		);
+
 	my $needtowritefile = 1;
 	if (grep(/^title\s+$XCATNETBOOTTITLE/, @lines)) { $needtowritefile = updateGrubEntry(\@lines, \@entry); }		# there is already an entry in there
 	else { addGrubEntry (\@lines, \@entry); }
@@ -179,15 +188,17 @@ sub addGrubEntry {
 # check the xcat entry in the grub file and see if it needs to be updated.  Return 1 if it does.
 sub updateGrubEntry {
 	my ($lines, $entry) = @_;
+	#print Dumper($lines), Dumper($entry);
 	# find the index of the xcat stanza
 	my $i;
-	for ($i=0; $i++; $i<scalar(@$lines)) {
+	for ($i=0; $i<scalar(@$lines); $i++) {
 		if ($lines->[$i] =~ m/^title\s+$XCATNETBOOTTITLE/) { last; }		# found it
 	}
 
 	# compare the next few lines with the corresponding line in @$entries and replace if different
 	my $replaced = 0;
-	for (my $j=0; $j++; $j<scalar(@$entry)) {
+	for (my $j=0; $j<scalar(@$entry); $j++) {
+		#print "comparing:\n  ", $lines->[$i+$j], "\n  ", $entry->[$j], "\n";
 		if ($lines->[$i+$j] ne $entry->[$j]) {		# this line was different
 			$lines->[$i+$j] = $entry->[$j];
 			$replaced = 1;
@@ -216,6 +227,10 @@ sub findGrubPath {
 # Pring msg only if -v was specified
 sub verbose { if ($VERBOSE) { print shift, "\n"; } }
 
+# Check the distro we are running on
+sub isSuse { return (-e '/etc/SuSE-release'); }
+sub isRedhat { return (-e '/etc/redhat-release' || -e '/etc/centos-release' || -e '/etc/fedora-release'); }		# add chk for fedora
+
 
 
 # Run a command.  If called in the context of return an array, it will capture the output
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
index 270431af3..e65431972 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ sub getBootParms {
 
 	# get the mgmt node cluster-facing ip addr
 	@output = runcmd('lsdef -t site -i master -c');
+	chomp($output[0]);
 	my ($junk, $ip) = split(/=/, $output[0]);
 	$bootparms{mnip} = $ip;
 
@@ -82,16 +83,22 @@ sub copyFilesToNodes {
 	foreach my $a (qw(kernel initrd)) {
 		my $file = $bootparms->{$a};
 		my $localfile = "/tftpboot/$file";
-		# for the remote file name, use the last 2 parts of the path, separated by "-"
-		my $remotefile = $file;
-		$remotefile =~ s|^.*/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$|$1-$2|;
-		$remotefile = "/boot/$remotefile";
+		# for the 
+		my $remotefile = '/boot/' . remoteFilename($file);
 		print "Copying $localfile to $nr:$remotefile\n";
 		runcmd("xdcp $nr -p $localfile $remotefile");
 	}
 }
 
 
+# Form the remote file name, using the last 2 parts of the path, separated by "-"
+sub remoteFilename {
+	my $f = shift @_;
+	$f =~ s|^.*/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$|$1-$2|;
+	return $f;
+}
+
+
 # Run the modifygrub script on the nodes to update the grub config file
 # Args: noderange, reference to the bootparms hash
 sub updateGrubOnNodes {
@@ -101,7 +108,7 @@ sub updateGrubOnNodes {
 	my @output = runcmd('which modifygrub');
 	my $modifygrub = $output[0];
 	chomp($modifygrub);
-	my $cmd = "xdsh $nr -e $modifygrub $vtxt " . $bootparms->{kernel} . ' ' . $bootparms->{initrd} . ' ';
+	my $cmd = "xdsh $nr -e $modifygrub $vtxt " . remoteFilename($bootparms->{kernel}) . ' ' . remoteFilename($bootparms->{initrd}) . ' ';
 	# we need to quote the kernel parms, both here when passing it to xdsh, and on the node
 	# when xdsh is passing it to modifygrub. The way to get single quotes inside single quotes
 	# is to quote each of the outer single quotes with double quotes.