What's the difference between GRUB and LILO and why should I care?

When I decided I would like to learn Linux, I put together a computer from parts I had around the house. This computer will run Linux and only Linux until the day it quits working.

During the Slackware installation, one of the choices I was given was to boot with either GRUB or LILO. Taking into consideration everything above, what is the difference between GRUB and LILO, and why should I care?

Thanks,

Timm

P.S. If anyone is interested, the parts I had consisted of a Soyo SY-7VDA motherboard, a 1Gig Via C3 processor, 512 MB of memory, 80 Gig Maxtor harddrive, a Compaq nVidea RIVA TNT2 Model 64 video card, an old Compaq CD rom drive, 300W power supply, and an old Gateway tower case I found while dumpster-diving.

From the IBM website: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...-bootload.html

all boot loaders work in a similar way to fulfill a common purpose. But LILO and GRUB do have a number of differences: * LILO has no interactive command interface, whereas GRUB does. * LILO does not support booting from a network, whereas GRUB does. * LILO stores information regarding the location of the operating systems it can to load physically on the MBR. If you change your LILO config file, you have to rewrite the LILO stage one boot loader to the MBR. Compared with GRUB, this is a much more risky option since a misconfigured MBR could leave the system unbootable. With GRUB, if the configuration file is configured incorrectly, it will simply default to the GRUB command-line interface.

Originally Posted by timmn During the Slackware installation, one of the choices I was given was to boot with either GRUB or LILO. Taking into consideration everything above, what is the difference between GRUB and LILO, and why should I care?

Not to be short with you, but this is something that you can easily find out for yourself with a simple web search. I or others could outline the differences but with something this simple why not just get the information firsthand? This way you will (1) know it is correct and unbiased, and (2) will probably find things that others might forget to mention.

As for the why you should care part, well that is beyond my intuition.

Well lilo has been around longer so I think people are more used to it. I personally still use lilo since it's simple and it works. I hear that one big plus to grub us that you don't have to install it (the boot image not the program) every time you install a new kernel. With lilo you have to type 'lilo' and update the boot loader.

regards,
...aaron

**edit**
you know you're a slow typer when two other people have allready responded before you hit submit

Mmm.. I've never seen Slackware asking me if I'd like to install GRUB (during install).
Anyway, they've they own pro and cons, just make some search and you will find them, basically, they do the same thing in different ways, but both works and you'll have people that like LILO and other that like GRUB.
I personally don't care, I just use LILO on my computer because it works for me, but I've installed GRUB on others.

Edit:

you know you're a slow typer when two other people have allready responded before you hit submit

or you're slow thinking in a foreign language :P

Maybe I just phrased the question wrong, if I am only going to boot Linux, does it make any difference which one I use? In my situation, is there any advantage using one over the other?

It's just a matter of preference. They both acomplish the same thing.

...aaron

Maybe I just phrased the question wrong, if I am only going to boot Linux, does it make any difference which one I use? In my situation, is there any advantage using one over the other?

To make it as simple as possible - its personal preference.

Each one will do what you want.
Read a little about each one, look at some screen shots, and make
a decision. you really shouldn't spend that much time at the boot
menu anyway.

good luck
-tw

I prefer GRUB, but like to use the default bootloader that comes with any distro, so when I run Slackware, I use LILO.

Originally Posted by timmn Maybe I just phrased the question wrong, if I am only going to boot Linux, does it make any difference which one I use? In my situation, is there any advantage using one over the other?

No. Some people prefer lilo, others GRUB. At the end of the day, they both perform the same function, and considering Slack's stability, the number of times you'll actually need to reboot will be few and far between

I use both. If I am on a single boot system that doesnt get updated(kernel) often (like slackware), I use lilo. Its easy to understand and setup.

If I need more complicated booting options or netboot, etc I use grub.

My two cents

Soule

I'm only speaking for myself, but I find Lilo's configuration file to be MUCH simpler and easier to understand than Grub's.

During the Slackware installation, one of the choices I was given was to boot with either GRUB or LILO.

i dont know whether slack is giving grub as a choise while installing. i hope no choise only lilo

since lilo is default and the only one in slak, i prefer lilo, but the problem i feel with lilo is, "every time i edit lilo, i have to run it, and if it is installed in mbr, mbr is over writen evry time"

there is one difference that caused me trouble once:
I tried the XFS File System for the first time, and that
didn't work with GRUB. I did some research and discovered
that is a known problem. So I had to use LILO for the first time.

About the XFS bug -it appears to have been resolved just after the release of grub-0.95 See here:
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/piper...ly/000380.html

Those who like to do 'interesting' things with GRUB should look around here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...ects/AFX-GRUB/