ROOTDEV=$(ssh $HOST awk < /boot/grub/grub.conf '/^#.*root=/ {print $5}')
You had embedded single quotes. Also, you didn't need cat or grep. Also,
the = sign and the # don't need to be backquoted. Also, the output of awk
being assigned to ROOTDEV was simply being dropped.
also i'm rubbish at scripting! thanks to all those who helped it now works fine cheers
