On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at 12:59:51PM -0500, Neo Futur wrote:
> I completely agree with most of the comments above about grub2.
> I manage dedicated server and build my own grsec kernel, so I often
> have to use the bootloader, so many times I couldnt get it to boot
> with grub2 after hours trying and as soon as I tried with lilo or
> grub-legacy it worked immediately my kernel was not at fault but some
> obscure grub2 problem.
> 
> So I upvote this idea of having devuan coming with a different default
> bootloader, wether it is grub1 or lilo ( or whatever is simple enough
> to be used by an average human, meaning not grub2 )

Lilo is easy to use, its configuration files are somewhat 
comprehensible,  but it dooes take a while befre you understand what's 
what, because the interaction between  syntax and semantics isn't that 
well documented (at least, it wsan't long ago when I still needed to 
read it).

THe big problem with lilo is that at the time of running the lilo 
command, it figures out exactly where the boot-time files are and sets 
up a table to be used at boot time.  If those files are moved on 
disk for any reason, even if they're in the same logical location i 
the file system, it won't boot.

Such file movement cab happen when one upgrades the kernel to a new 
version that still has the same file name.  Of course, when you upgrade 
the kernel, dpkg will cause lilo to be rerun..  But if something goe 
wrong with that, you could be doomed.

grub, on the other hand, can read the file system at boot time (for 
some file systems), and it can still find them.   The more complicated 
the file system supported, the more complicated the code that has to be 
available at boot time.

I try to have multiple ways of booting my system, just in case.  grub 
can boot it directly from a hard disk's boot record; lilo is set up to 
boot from a floppy.

-- hendrik
_______________________________________________
Dng mailing list
Dng@lists.dyne.org
https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng

Reply via email to