Lilo v. Grub

reddazz · 03-24-2005, 09:43 AM

Its not longer valid if you use newer versions of lilo.

slakmagik · 03-24-2005, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by egag
-----------
During the days I used LILO, I couldn't boot on a system where the Linux partition was installed > 1024 cylinder limit of the hard disk.
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is that still valid ?

Not for years. The only problem with LILO is that everybody *thinks* there's problems with LILO.

-- $&!^ - haven't done that in awhile. Posted without realizing I hadn't read the last page. Sorry.

wes103 · 03-24-2005, 01:10 PM

Quote:

The only problem with LILO is that everybody *thinks* there's problems with LILO.

I fully agree with that sentiment. I've been using it a long time and have not yet gotten into an uncorrectable situation due to some limitation in LILO. Sure, it has had issues, like the cylinder issue, but they've been corrected. GRUB will face it's own challenges as time goes on. I hope folks give the GRUB team the chance to overcome them, and don't just pooh-pooh the project into the wastebin. I don't use GRUB, but I think we should all have a choice.

Now... for those who think LILO is bad, how many of you have used "shoestring" to boot your linux systems? Or had to manually edit your MBR with a hex editor?

oneandoneis2 · 03-24-2005, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Now... for those who think LILO is bad, how many of you have used "shoestring" to boot your linux systems? Or had to manually edit your MBR with a hex editor?

HAH! In MY day, we had to edit the inodes manually with fridge magnets!

Young people today, they don't know they're born...

egag · 03-24-2005, 03:33 PM

ah.....reddazz & digiot,

thanks for the answer....
so...no grub for me....

egag

DaWallace · 03-24-2005, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wes103
Well... after going through the process of recompiling a kernel, what's the big deal of typing "/sbin/lilo" at the end of it?

it's not the act of doing it. it's the annoyance of forgetting.

Quote:

Originally posted by [GOD]Anck
I don't like how it has a nice background and a progress bar and an option to change resolutions etc. Who needs that anyway? I don't mind if it's ugly and low-res, I just want a list of images. I pick one and the bootloader boots it.

that's a patch popular with redhat, suse and the like. it's not part of grub.

wes103 · 03-27-2005, 08:42 PM

(I had a response here to the "forgetting to run it" rebuttal. But I could keep this tit-for-tat going on ad-nauseum. So, I have removed it, since I don't seem to be able to delete it. Let's kill the thread. Both work, and both appeal to different types of user.)

DaWallace · 03-27-2005, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wes103
Do you forget to run "make modules_install" ?

I wrote scripts that automate many of these chores, so forgetting really isn't relevant. However, since I don't overwrite my old kernels, forgetting to run it would just mean I boot back to where I was before. Which is by no means catastrophic, nor does it hose my system.

at the time I decided to use grub, I might have. however, I have taken to trying some bsds occasionally. and I like the ability to boot to and pass parameters to those kernels if I need to(granted, it's not very good at this). also, I can edit the grub config from any OS that can write to the disk. meaning that, with some coaxing I can change such things from windows or, with slightly less coaxing, from any other OS. instead of relying on a platform dependant solution.

grub simply shows more promise, while lilo is simpler and doesn't require external files just to boot.

it also appears that you've edited yourself right from under me.

damn.

The SIN Raven · 03-27-2005, 09:22 PM

For me lilo, simple, easy and clean...

The SIN Raven

DaWallace · 03-27-2005, 09:31 PM

don't say easy.. it's saying things like that that started the argument in the first place.

The SIN Raven · 03-27-2005, 09:40 PM

Yep, im really saying easy, Lilo for me is mutch more easyer them grub, and no doupts about it, but of course i respect your opinion...

Thake care:

The SIN Raven

DaWallace · 03-27-2005, 09:51 PM

well.. some aspects are easier, I've found initial configuration to be easier. but I had a lot of trouble getting lilo to boot with a ramdisk as a root filesystem, I use it for root filesystem checking and upgrades, it's basically the slackware boot disk on a hd. anyway.. the whole deal was much easier on grub due to the nature of its commands.
lilo was very misleading, and spewed out errors that were irrelevant.

Code:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.6
  root = /dev/hdc1
  label = Doombiote-AX
  read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
  append = "video=matrox:vesa:0x318"

image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10
  initrd = /boot/slackrescue.img
  label = SlackRescue
  read-write
  append = "root=/dev/ram load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6464"

And with grub

Code:

title Slackware Rescue Image
lock
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10-bs vga=0x31A video=vesa:ywrap root=/dev/ram rw load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6464
initrd /slackrescue.img

but.. I'd be hard pressed to find someone else who did that.

ozar · 03-27-2005, 10:37 PM

I used to swear by LILO but got started using GRUB a couple years ago and haven't looked back. Now, GRUB gets installed on all my Linux distros.

vharishankar · 03-27-2005, 11:34 PM

Grub gives me very few problems and there's no reason to change it.

For one thing, I boot off multiple partitions on multiple hard disks and grub is perfectly easy to configure for non-linux oses. Since I haven't used LILO for years, I cannot comment on LILO, but GRUB is very good.