Boot Loaders

Geeky_Kid · 12-26-2003, 01:20 AM

While I have been using LILO for quite some time now, I wonder if I should switch over to GRUB. Then there are some "other" bootloaders as well.

(1) What are these and how can they boot my distributions?
(2) Is there any worth trying?

A friend tried adding a FREEBSD install to GRUB. Couldn't figure out what to do, what file to modify. I added just three lines in LILO and it worked

Please point me to an article or something that tells me why GRUB is better than LILO (if at all).

Demonbane · 12-26-2003, 01:49 AM

If LILO is working fine for you, why bother

Skyline · 12-26-2003, 02:44 AM

One difference is simply that with LILO, once youve made changes to its config file, you have to re-install it and the updated map by issuing /sbin/lilo - personally, never found this hard work - with GRUB - you dont have to re-install - I always have other OS kernels mounted via their Root partitions in fstab so when it comes to running LILO I dont have to mount anything in a hurry (LILO requires that all kernels be locally mounted if you want them included in the new map file)

aaa · 12-26-2003, 07:49 AM

Quote:

I added just three lines in LILO and it worked

The same can be done for Grub, just add a few lines to it's configuration file (the location of this varies from distro to distro). Another grub advantage is that you don't need to add lines to the configurations file to boot a new os. You can enter the commands manually at the Grub menu.

rberry88 · 12-26-2003, 09:35 AM

For FreeBSD you can also use the chainloader +1 command in Grub so that you boot to the FreeBSD boot menu where you have a choice of BSD boots (i.e. normal boot, failsafe boot, prompt boot etc).

On my machine I add the following to boot FreeBSD on my 3rd hard drive.

title FreeBSD
root (hd2,4)
chainloader +1
makeactive

rberry88

rberry88

Mikecore · 12-26-2003, 10:43 AM

Hello i'm a noob (LOL)

I need some help setting up my Grub Boot cfg file.

I have Fedora core1 installed on a slave hard drive and at first I had Win XP on my
Master.

I have since installed Mandrake on my Master Hard Drive and Need to
set grub up to Also be able to load it.

could some please post what lines I would need add to my config file to make this happen.

thanks