On Sun, May 28, 2000 at 04:44:31PM -0600, Roberto Mello wrote:
> Can you give me some good reasons why I shouldn't put LILO on the MBR ?
> I've always done it that way and it always worked. If I don't put it in
> the MBR, won't I have to use a boot floppy to boot GNU/Linux ?
>
Hopefully this won't lead into another flamewar about this very topic
(God knows I've been in enough of them), but there are a number of reasons.
I'll just summarize some of the most important.
1. You gain nothing by doing so. Logic dictates that if an action is not
helpful in any manner whatsoever, and carries a risk of harm or hardship,
then that action shouldn't be undertaken.
2. The volatility of the MBR. Ever installed Windows? Overwrites the MBR.
In fact, this is one of the only smart things Microsoft has ever done:
it overwrites the MBR with the PROPER code that should be there, to the
consternation of people who have tampered with something they shouldn't have.
3. The MBR isn't the proper place for LILO. The MBR already contains the
only bootloader it needs: it checks your partition table, and passes control
to the boot sector of the partition marked as active. *THAT* is where LILO
(or any other boot loader) should be.
4. Restriction of choice. Not only do you not gain any functionality by
installing LILO to the MBR, you actually *LOSE* functionality: the important
ability to change the active partition on your hard drive, changing the
way your computer boots without comitting to permanent changes. If you have
LILO installed PROPERLY, on your Linux partition, you can easily "hide"
Linux completely by simply marking your Windows partition is active, causing
the system to boot straight into Windows. Later, you can simply make the
Linux partition (with LILO) active again, and LILO will once again be your
boot loader. No modifications to the MBR, no fdisk /mbr'ing, no permanent
or risky changes, etc.
5. What if LILO breaks? It does break. Often. I've seen it. Now, imagine
that LILO is living in the MBR when it breaks. This will be left as an
exercise to the reader.
In short, you gain nothing, but you lose a lot. Even if you don't agree that
you lose a lot, you can't dispute the fact that (on a properly installed
system) you gain nothing, which makes putting LILO in the MBR a pretty
fruitless proposition.
NOTE: The only instances in which you'd need to put LILO in the MBR are
when your Linux root partition is a logical partition, or when it's not
located on the first hard drive. However, I have "names" for people who
do things like that... but that's a whole different flamewar.
Peace!
Craig McPherson
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