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Old 04-04-2003, 06:05 AM   #1
friendklay
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Question Chaning Bootloaders, from Grub to Lilo


Hi, I have installed Redhat 8 on my system with Grub as the bootloader. How do I change back to Lilo? And is it possible to change back to Grub again? Thanks in advance.
 
Old 04-04-2003, 08:26 AM   #2
fsbooks
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I think if you just set up a proper lilo.conf file and run lilo, that should overwrite the boot record of grub and install lilo. Reverting should be similar. You might want to write this to a floppy first, and make sure that works. And, of course, make sure you have a good bootfloppy to get back in your system if something goes wrong.

Can anyone tell me offhand what are the supposed advantages of grub? The only thing I am aware of is that it allows dual booting with XP and lilo does not, and I do not even know that for a fact. (I suppose I could search on probable ubiquitous lilo vs grub threads.)
 
Old 04-04-2003, 09:04 AM   #3
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to reinstall grub, it should be grub-install /dev/hd(?)...(?) being a or b or where ur hdd resides.
 
Old 04-04-2003, 03:05 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally posted by fsbooks
Can anyone tell me offhand what are the supposed advantages of grub? The only thing I am aware of is that it allows dual booting with XP and lilo does not, and I do not even know that for a fact. (I suppose I could search on probable ubiquitous lilo vs grub threads.)
Advantages include not having to type /sbin/lilo after you edit your grub.conf file, the settings are automatically there (this is due to the way grub works). Other than that, currently, they both have the same capabilities and limitations, they can both easily handle a dual boot XP and Linux.

Cool
 
Old 04-04-2003, 03:44 PM   #5
maxspeed
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Well what i like about grub is the pretty splashscreen i have heh. THere arent many differences between grub and lilo. a another difference is that grub can read ext2 and lilo cant. Another good thing about grub is that if for some reason its grub.conf is configuered incorrectly or something, grub will just take you to its cammand interface which is its default and will allow you to boot your system unlike lilo.
 
Old 04-04-2003, 03:47 PM   #6
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Lilo can't read ext2??? THAT is why i couldn't boot with lilo but i could with grub..i KNEW there was nothing wrong with my lilo.conf...sheesh....that explains everything...
 
Old 04-04-2003, 08:47 PM   #7
MasterC
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That's not correct AFAIK... I am quite sure that Mandrake has used LILO for quite some time, and before ext3 was around, it used ext2 as it's filesystem and lilo had no problems. ext3 being simply ext2 journaled also goes a bit further to disprove this statement...

As far as dropping back to CLI you can do that with lilo as well. There really are only slight subtle differences between the two, and it's not going to be something anyone can say "it's obviously better because..." since it's so slight.

LILO too has a graphic ability. It's all there in the docs.

Cool
 
Old 04-05-2003, 10:16 AM   #8
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http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...de/ch-grub.htm

Quote:

GRUB contains a number of features that make it preferable to other available boot loaders. These are some of the most important:

GRUB's configuration file is read from the disk every time the system boots, preventing the user from having to write over the MBR every time a change the boot options is made. Most boot loaders are not sophisticated enough to read configuration files and use them to set up boot options. For example, to change a LILO boot configuration, such as changing the default operating system to boot, users must change a LILO configuration file and run a command that overwrites the system's MBR with the new configuration data. This is more risky than GRUB's method, because a misconfigured MBR would leave the system unbootable. With GRUB, if the configuration file is erroneously configured and rebooted, it will simply default to a command line and allow the user to manually type commands that will launch the operating system. The MBR is not touched except to update the Stage 1, Stage 2, or menu configuration file locations, and this is rarely necessary.

GRUB provides a true command-based, pre-OS environment on x86 machines to allow maximum flexibility in loading operating systems with certain options or gathering information about the system. Many non-x86 architectures have employed pre-OS environments for years that allows control over how the system boots from a command line. While some command features are available with LILO and other x86 boot loaders, GRUB contains a greater number of features.

GRUB supports Logical Block Addressing (LBA) mode. LBA places the addressing conversion used to find files on the drive in the drive's firmware, and it is used on many IDE and all SCSI hard disks. Before LBA, hard drives could encounter a 1024-cylinder limit, where the BIOS could not find a file after that point, such as a boot loader or kernel files. LBA support allows GRUB to boot operating systems from partitions beyond the 1024-cylinder limit, so long as the system BIOS supports LBA mode (most do).
 
Old 04-05-2003, 10:59 AM   #9
tktim
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' http://www.redhat.com

Support & Docs
Red Hat Docs
Red Hat Linux
Key Word = Grub

' http://www.redhat.com
/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.3-Manual/
ref-guide/ch-grub.html '
 
Old 04-05-2003, 11:17 AM   #10
MasterC
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Quote:
Originally posted by tktim
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...de/ch-grub.htm

Quote:

GRUB contains a number of features that make it preferable to other available boot loaders. These are some of the most important:

GRUB's configuration file is read from the disk every time the system boots, preventing the user from having to write over the MBR every time a change the boot options is made. Most boot loaders are not sophisticated enough to read configuration files and use them to set up boot options. For example, to change a LILO boot configuration, such as changing the default operating system to boot, users must change a LILO configuration file and run a command that overwrites the system's MBR with the new configuration data. This is more risky than GRUB's method, because a misconfigured MBR would leave the system unbootable. With GRUB, if the configuration file is erroneously configured and rebooted, it will simply default to a command line and allow the user to manually type commands that will launch the operating system. The MBR is not touched except to update the Stage 1, Stage 2, or menu configuration file locations, and this is rarely necessary.

GRUB provides a true command-based, pre-OS environment on x86 machines to allow maximum flexibility in loading operating systems with certain options or gathering information about the system. Many non-x86 architectures have employed pre-OS environments for years that allows control over how the system boots from a command line. While some command features are available with LILO and other x86 boot loaders, GRUB contains a greater number of features.

GRUB supports Logical Block Addressing (LBA) mode. LBA places the addressing conversion used to find files on the drive in the drive's firmware, and it is used on many IDE and all SCSI hard disks. Before LBA, hard drives could encounter a 1024-cylinder limit, where the BIOS could not find a file after that point, such as a boot loader or kernel files. LBA support allows GRUB to boot operating systems from partitions beyond the 1024-cylinder limit, so long as the system BIOS supports LBA mode (most do).
I summed that up already in my first post:
/sbin/lilo



As for "a greater number of features" that's pretty generic. I do think that this might have been true a number of years ago, however LILO has caught up at this point, they are very close in number of features.

LBA, LILO too supports LBA....



Cool
 
Old 04-05-2003, 12:38 PM   #11
friendklay
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Thank you thank you thank you. I had more than I had asked for from the discussions that followed. Cool
 
Old 04-05-2003, 04:19 PM   #12
tktim
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THANKS!

MasterC
 
Old 04-06-2003, 12:31 AM   #13
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You're welcome, I guess it's obvious which one I use eh?

Although, just for kicks, I'm thinking about giving grub a go...

Cool
 
Old 04-07-2003, 11:45 AM   #14
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Bah lilo never works for me.....it just doesn't like my hdd or something...just sticking with grub for now
 
Old 04-07-2003, 05:13 PM   #15
maxspeed
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masterc i know you have a lot more experience than me on this subject so you might be right on everything you said but this link clearly states that lilo does not read ext2 partitions and i have read in a couple of other places which have told me the same thing.

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...grub-lilo.html

about lilo supporting LBA, i installed lilo on slackware 9 and it was working great and all but the i added a couple of other os to its config file and then did a lilo to update then i rebooted and it gave me a messege stating that it had exceeded the maximum cylender of 1024. I don't know much about lilo but i dont think it supports it, i may have to enable it which i dont know how to do though so i may be wrong. I like to learn and i like to be clear on each subject so if am wrong dont be shy and correct me (:
 
  


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