Can Linux always boot from CD ROM
 

Hi, All:

A few days ago, when I installed Fedora 2 on a dual boot system, things messed up, after installation, windows cannot boot up, it was an horrible experience.

So on next Fedora installation, I do not want to install GRUB bootloader, instead, I wonder if I can let Fedora always boot from a CD ROM ? That is, create a boot CD ROM, everytime, just let Fedora boot from it. (Since I do not have floppy on the machine).

Thanks.

Hi ieeestd802,
would it be possible? sure. Would it be advisable? Hell no!
It would be very difficult to set u and using it would be very slow and error-prone (the read-only nature of CD-ROMs makes updates difficult).

Better get GRUB right. The nice people at linuxquestions.org will be glad to help,
- drowstar

the reason u could not boot into windows was because of a simple Grub config problem.

Did u post the problem here? If so it could have been fixed easily

I don't think he means run the entire OS from CD Rom. He just means use a boot CD, the exact same thing as a boot disk except it is round, not square :p . I have done it with a floppy before when I was having problems with Debian, there mustbe some way to make a boot cdrom.

hi rm6990,
the problem I see with having a boot CD is that it would still require him to have the kernel and initrd on the CD (updates anyone) and that it would be quite slow at the start of the boot process.
Yes, it would be possible by burning the content of a boot floppy to a cdrom (plus a few extra quirks) and formatting the mbr, but still, I think he will be better served with a functioning boot loader.

ieeestd802, are you still considering using GRUB or are you very focused on the boot CD alternative?

Thanks,
- drowstar

Hi, All:

Thanks for your quick replies.

I want to choose booting from CD instead of booting from a bootloader because I thought it is safer.

Last time, when GRUB messed up my dual-boot system, after many many hours frustrated experience, trying countless tips/methods/workarounds (that was before I found http://www.linuxquestions.org, and before I knew that my problem might be fixed with
sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/had ), I ended up formatting my disk, completely loss the data, and re-install OS.

This time, I will install Linux on a laptop with dual boot system.
I cannot afford to lose data, I thought booting from CD (similar to booting from floppy) might be safer.

(Of course, if GRUB really works, I still can consider to use a bootloader, but is it really safer ? )

GRUB works like a charm - the fallout of your prev. dual-boot experience was simply a config error.
I would reccomend using it as opposed to a CD.

I dual-boot Windows and Linux with Grub and it works great, Lilo works good for this too.

Hi ,
this is mostly a "me too"-post.

In my experience GRUB is a great piece of software that you can trust to do its job. Also, it's probably a lot safer to install a boot loader than it is to partition your hard drive (for example).
You can be certain that installing the boot loader will not delete anything, because the part of the hard drive (the Master Boot Record (mbr)) the boot loader installs itself to is not taken up by any other kind of software and can easily be wiped using fdisk /mbr in DOS.

I would advise you to use GRUB (or lilo, doesnt matter),
- drowstar

Use Grub if possible instead of lilo, Lilo is more confusing for people who have used neither than grub is when you look at the config files.