Slackware - InstallationThis forum is for the discussion of installation issues with Slackware.
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.
I still use LILO by choice myself. I have no need for any of the features of GRUB and when I started with Linux, I used LILO, so I've just stuck with it. Likewise, many see Pat as old school, and that could explain his attraction to the simplicity of the time-tested LILO.
Lilo is just as feature rich as grub, so many people still like it. The only thing I dislike is having to run /sbin/lilo each time I change the config file or upgrade a kernel.
Lilo is just as feature rich as grub, so many people still like it.
GRUB is just as feature rich as lilo, so many people still like it.
Actually, IIRC, I migrated to GRUB rather quickly several years ago when I realized at that time (I don't know if this still applies to more recent versions) that LILO limits the length of the menu strings. With GRUB I could create longer non-cryptic human readable descriptions for my menu options. Additionally, I did not have to re-run LILO every time I modified my menu, which many people tend to forget.
Quote:
The only thing I dislike is having to run /sbin/lilo each time I change the config file or upgrade a kernel.
Thankfully, with GRUB none of this is necessary.
Quote:
I found GRUB on the /extras, is there an option to install GRUB instead of lilo on the install?
No, sadly, installing GRUB is another manual exercise. Fortunately, installing is a straightforward process.
1. cd /extras
2. installpkg grub*.tgz
3. grub-install /dev/hda
4. edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as necessary
This will install GRUB to the hard drive's MBR. If you are multi-booting with a Windows OS, then be sure to add a menu option so GRUB will pass (chainload) the boot sequence to the Windows boot loader.
Do not reboot until after editing menu.lst.
To create an emergency GRUB boot floppy (handy once every blue moon):
grub-install /dev/fd0
Notes: 1) grub-install is one "word" 2) the "lst" extension in menu.lst uses an alphabetic ell, not a numeric one.
That last entry is kind of handy too because I can disable floppy booting in the BIOS and still boot from floppy using GRUB.
Lastly, bear in mind that GRUB counts everything starting with zero. Thus, (hd0,1) points to the first hard drive (/dev/hda) and the second partition; (hd0,12) points to /dev/hda, 13th partition.
Grub's insistence on using a different naming scheme is quite annoying, IMHO. Especially in a mixed PATA/SATA environment. Admittedly, the longer names for boot options would be a nice feature.
Cool, thanks for the replies everyone, especially Woodsman--that's great
Quote:
Lilo is just as feature rich as grub, so many people still like it. The only thing I dislike is having to run /sbin/lilo each time I change the config file or upgrade a kernel.
Therein lies the problem. My kernel got corrupted, and I could flip back to the backup kernel because I couldn't chroot /sbin/lilo.
Chroot /sbin/lilo? You should chroot /mnt/rootpartition and then just run /sbin/lilo. Or even 'chroot /mnt/rootpartition /sbin/lilo'. Obviously, /mnt/rootpartition should be where you have mounted your root partition.
I like Lilo, although I also get annoyed with the naming limitations.
I have played around with making a bootsplash for it, which is not very complicated - I like that. It can become very nice to look at with very little hassle.
1. cd /extras
2. installpkg grub*.tgz
3. grub-install /dev/hda
4. edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as necessary
Myself, I think it's much easier to simply remove the lilo package, install the grub one from /extras and then run grubconfig, which is just like the installer that was used for lilo during the install, but for grub instead. It found all my disks (Slack, FreeBSD, Ubuntu and Windoze).
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.