Hi All!

I've installed various distros of LINUX of one fashion or another over the years. Some worked, some didn't. Right now. I'm re-acquainting myself with the whole re-format (Strictly WIN HD) to a hopefully, dual-boot HD with 40 gigs of "open" space for WIN 2000 Pro data, not the O/S, that's on the "C" drive (37 gigs formatted) and a 40 gig space for Ubuntu, Kbuntu, or Xbuntu, which ever gives me the ham radio programs that I need to run FLDIGI and log contacts.

Now, as I said, I've installed LINUX before, but the last time, I think I used GRUB to do it. Later, we had a severe thunderstorm come up while no one was home to turn the computer OFF and somehow the Zero sector got messed up. I was not able to access that drive at all.

I'm again, starting over some years later and wonder if GRUB is really the boot program I want to use instead of LiLo or some new, whiz-bang program.

Eventually, the C drive will be converted over to a "jukebox" and not be on-line at all. By then, hopefully, I should be comfortable enough with Linux, I can drop WIN altogether, LOL! Kinda like the Dish Network commercial: "Why should I pay MORE for an O/S when Linux is FREE and better?" ROFL!

Any and all SERIOUS answers considered.

Thanks in Advance,
GOD BLESS,
Best Regard,

Buck/KA5LQJ

I've never heard of that problem with GRUB, but it's the main bootloader standard, only a few distributions (eg. Slackware) use lilo as the default.

There's basically 3 out right now: grub "legacy" (what you had, no longer updated), grub 2 (changes include, I believe, automating stuff), and lilo (old school but stable).

If I remember correctly there are still a few distros that ship with grub legacy. I'm partial to lilo just because that's what I've used, but just getting into the game you might as well not worry about it and use GRUB 2. It's the future and all that ;-).

Whatever comes standard on the distro you choose should work fine, in most any case.

One can change the boot loader freely in any Linux. In fact one can boot a Linux without any boot loader installed, just put Grub on a floppy. Legacy Grub or Grub1 is more powerful but distros switch to Grub2 because it can read Ext4. Many distros prefer to stick with Grub1 and doctored its version to boot Ext4 partitions so the choice is up to the user. Both Grub1 and Grub2 can be put onto a floppy or CD as a booting weapon.

Grub1 or Grub2 can boot a system manually. Lilo loses ground to Grub because it can't do this trick.

2 members found this post helpful.

Buck,
As a new HAM, I'd be really interested in anything you're doing HAM-wise on Linux.
I tried to get on of the link programs running but got tangled up in the USB audio.
73s, Dave
--
KB1TVH
dcannell@freeshell.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System ... Est. 1987
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is your PC near any antenna cables? I've lost a number of disk drives in a satellite ground station (cables going to the roof for signal, pointing motors, and GPS antenna. The vendor replaced the failed drives under warranty after I sent the diagnostic reports. After beefing up the grounding with a wire between the cases of the PC and the motor controls no more drives have failed, but maybe we haven't had a strong hit yet, or maybe newer drives are more robust.

As for boot loaders, others have mentioned the 3 options. There are also non-free bootloaders. Whichever loader is installed by your distro will be fine for most purposes running a standard PC with a few OS's installed, but it also isn't a big deal to switch if you are willing to RTFM carefully.

If any of those can boot Linux directly, I'm not aware of it.

1 members found this post helpful.

First try a few live CDs.
Find the one you like - I liked Simply Mepis but with the new Kernel and kde bugs, I've since found favor with Open Suse 11.2.

Open Suse did a remarkable job of making it easy to install Linux over Windows. (I did that for a friend).
My machine dual boots Mepis /Open Suse - however Suse broke Grub - it wouldn't install. The Mepis Live CD's have a nice repair tool for the boot loader and I used that to reinstall grub. It was so easy too.
However, every system can be different - so be prepared in case of disaster.

good luck and '73'

~Steve~

this sounds like it's worth a shot.
also you can always fix grub, by booting from a boot disk (live cd, usb, etc...) and running grub-install /dev/drive (not partition number)

I've worked with a lot of computers that were on in a lot of thunderstorms and seen that result a few times (despite a surge protector, a thunderstorm trashes the MBR and the rest of the computer is fine). But the last time I saw that was almost 20 years ago. I assumed computer technology has improved and that doesn't happen anymore (even on many computers without surge protectors).

The choice of boot code should not affect the probability of that failure. Nor does it significantly affect the difficulty of fixing things. You would loose the first sector of boot code, which requires a different but fairly simple repair process depending on which boot manager you have. But you would also loose the root of the partition table, which require a more difficult expert repair. So repairing the boot code is a minor fraction of the job.

Grub or Grub2 (whichever the Linux distribution you install defaults to) is a very good choice.