Re: Is it a "user error" to use lilo?

[Bjørn Mork <bmork@dod.no>]

maximilian attems <max@stro.at> writes:
> On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 09:07:29AM -0500, William Pitcock wrote:
>> 
>> If you have both GRUB and LILO installed, there will be problems. That
>> is infact, a bug. They should Conflict with each other to ensure that
>> only one can be installed at a time, but it is a minor bug at best, as
>> any smart user would not have both bootloaders installed. And infact,
>> any typical user would not install a second bootloader.
>
> things are sorted by the run_bootloader variable in /etc/kernel-img.conf
>
> user had switched from lilo to grub without changing this preference,
> thus user error.

Maybe the need for this change should be somewhat more explicit?

/usr/share/doc/grub/README.Debian.gz does mention it, but the absolute
need to change the setting is not at all clear to me:

 update-grub
 -----------
 This script is a debian specific addon used to generate a menu.lst for you
 either intially, and/or automatically everytime you install a new kernel.
 
 To setup automatic updates add these lines to your /etc/kernel-img.conf:
 
 postinst_hook = update-grub
 postrm_hook   = update-grub
 do_bootloader = no
 
 For further information see the manpage kernel-img.conf(5) or update-grub(8)
 
 Unlike Lilo, it is not necessary to re-run or re-install the boot loader 
 after every change to /boot/grub/menu.lst.  menu.lst is automatically 
 found on GRUB's root disk and read during GRUB's boot process.
 


This seems to just deal with automatic updates.

Now, what if I don't want to regenerate /boot/grub/menu.lst, would I
still understand that I should set "do_bootloader = no"?  Maybe.  But
what if I wanted to ensure that the grub boot block always is up-to-date
(even if it's not really necessary).  Without this discussion, I would
probably have assumed that "do_bootloader = yes" would do that for me.

I cannot find anything documenting do_bootloader as a lilo-specific
setting in any of kernel-img.conf(5), update-grub(8),
/usr/share/doc/grub/README.Debian.gz or
/usr/share/doc/lilo/README.Debian

I believe both /usr/share/doc/grub/README.Debian.gz and
kernel-img.conf(5) should make it clear that you need to set
"do_bootloader = no" unless you want lilo automatically installed.


Bjørn
-- 
You must be a real dogmatist to think that it's a wonderful day