Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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...
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 (:
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.