Re: GRUB OR LILO?
On Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:38:40 -0400 (EDT), Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 2:24 AM, Alex PADOLY <alex.padoly@gmx.fr> wrote:
>> ...
>> For a server that works permanently with DEBIAN SQUEEZE,
>> I used LILO in kernel compilation and with and scsi isa card.
>> Why many of LINUX distribution choose GRUB?
>> I don't know that I must choose.
>> ...
>
> There are a big, big stack of reasons. Once grub is installed, you can
> edit grub.conf and don't have to "re-install" it in the boot loader,
If it's installed in the master boot record, yes. If Grub Version 2
is installed in a partition boot sector, I believe it reads a list of blocks,
just as LILO does. I don't believe that this is the case with
Grub Version 1. However, Grub Version 1 is no longer actively developed.
And both versions of Grub use unallocated sectors to store extra
code when they are installed in the master boot record. This can
lead to conflicts with other programs trying to do the same thing
or backup / restore issues. So there is a down side to this feature.
> This is an *enormous* stability advantage: various changes of system
> configuration and kernel changes can re-arrange your drives, and
> having to figure out which one gets the boot loader with the new
> ordering is incredibly painful.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the above. With an appropriate
combination of symbolic links to block special files and direct
UUID or LABEL specifications, LILO can be made independent of driver
type (i.e. traditional IDE vs. libata SCSI emulation) and discover
order (i.e. /dev/sda vs. /dev/sdb).
> LILO's old limitations to having your "/boot" partition contained
> entirely in the first 8 Gig of disk was also a big issue with
> dual-boot or larger drived systems where a single "/" partition was
> preferable. Grub does not have this issue.
And LILO doesn't either. Not anymore. As long as the BIOS supports
EDD packet addressing, the old 8.4G limit is long gone. For more
up-to-date information on LILO, see
http://users.wowway.com/~zlinuxman/lilo.htm
LILO is not for everyone; but when properly installed and configured,
it meets my needs quite well; and I have found it very reliable.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-
Reply to: