Re: Why all the futzing with boot loaders

[Jason Martens <me@jasonmartens.com>]

Rich Johnson wrote:
> I was perfectly happy running LILO with potato and woody.
> Then sarge installs with the GRUB bootloader.  All right, I can deal.
> Now apt-get dist-upgrade _removes_  a working GRUB and installs a 
> non-working LILO; it doesn't update the MBR.
I'm not really sure why grub would have been removed, but it's almost 
certainly a mistake.  There are a few situations, if I recall correctly, 
where lilo worked but grub didn't  (root on raid/lvm comes to mind).  
IMHO, grub is a HUGE improvement over lilo, because you can have 
multiple boot options configured simultaneously, so if you screw up a 
new kernel install, you can always boot from the old one.  Also, if you 
have a copy of a working menu.lst file, you can always type it in 
manually at the grub prompt to boot (this may be possible with lilo too, 
but I don't have any experience with it).

> My first question:
>  - Can anyone tell me why  there's all this thrashing about?
I think most people have settled on grub.  According to 
popcon.debian.org, grub has 11580 installations, and lilo has 3098 
installations.

> My second question:
>  - After the LILO ''upgrade'', attempts to install lilo have my system 
> unbootable, can anyone tell me how I bolixed things up and walk me 
> through a recovery process?  (step 1: how to obtain an bootable floppy 
> with ext3, LILO and command line support)

The easiest way to fix this in my experience is to boot from the debian 
installer. Something like this should work:
boot installer
mount your root partition to /target
mount any additional partitions in their correct places in /target
chroot /target
mount -t proc proc /proc
apt-get install grub
grub-install /dev/hdx

If you got this far, you should be able to then reboot into your 
system.  Not exactly easy, but it works.

> The BIOS messages are:
> [....]
> Searching for Boot Record from IDE-0..OK
> No boot signature in partition
> Boot Failure from Previous Device..
>
>
> The last commands (and responses)  were:
> cmd:$ sudo lilo -M /dev/hda1
> Fatal: /dev/hda1 is not a master device with a primary parition table
> rich@sensor:~$ sudo lilo -M /dev/hda1 mbr
> Fatal: /dev/hda1 is not a master device with a primary parition table
> cmd:$ sudo lilo -M /dev/hda mbr
> Backup copy of /dev/hda in /boot/boot.0300
> The Master Boot Record of  /dev/hda  has been updated.
> cmd:$ sudo lilo -v -v
> LILO version 22.6.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
> Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2004 John Coffman
> Released 17-Nov-2004, and compiled at 10:36:02 on Nov 29 2005
> Debian GNU/Linux
>
> raid_setup returns offset = 00000000  ndisk = 0
> BIOS   VolumeID   Device
> Reading boot sector from /dev/hda1
> pf_hard_disk_scan: ndevs=1
>   0300  35FCF572  /dev/hda
> device codes (user assigned pf) = 0
> device codes (user assigned) = 0
> device codes (BIOS assigned) = 0
> device codes (canonical) = 1
> Warning: boot record relocation beyond BPB is necessary: /dev/hda1
> Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.
> Using BITMAP secondary loader
> Calling map_insert_data
> Secondary loader: 19 sectors (0x3600 dataend).
> bios_boot = 0x80  bios_map = 0x80  map==boot = 0  map S/N: 35FCF572
> Mapping bitmap file /boot/debianlilo.bmp
> Calling map_insert_file
> Bitmap: 301 sectors.
> BIOS data check will include auto-suppress check
>
> Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-2-686
> Setup length is 15 sectors.
> Mapped 2237 sectors.
> Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img-2.6.16-2-686
> RAM disk: 8490 sectors.
> Added Lin_2.6.16img0 *
>
> Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386
> Setup length is 10 sectors.
> Mapped 2146 sectors.
> Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
> RAM disk: 8432 sectors.
> Added Lin_2.6.8img1
>
> Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-3-686
> Setup length is 10 sectors.
> Mapped 2291 sectors.
> Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-3-686
> RAM disk: 9112 sectors.
> Added Lin_2.6.8img2
>
> BIOS   VolumeID   Device
>   80    35FCF572    0300
> Writing boot sector.
> /boot/boot.0301 exists - no boot sector backup copy made.
> Map file size: 339456 bytes.
> RAID device mask 0x0000
> Boot sector relocation performed
> cmd:$ init 6
>
>
>
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