Re: reasons to ditch LILO before upgrading to jessie?
On Sat 09 Jul 2016 at 13:19:08 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 9, 2016, at 10:53, Felix Miata wrote:
> > Stephen Powell composed on 2016-07-09 08:58 (UTC-0400):
> >
> >> As for features, LILO has all the features that I need.
> >
> > One feature it never acquired AFAIK, which Grub shares with Syslinux, is the
> > ability to edit the kernel cmdline at boot time, before kernel load. With
> > problematic hardware, problematic BIOS, and pre-release kernel and distro
> > versions, that ability is a big troubleshooting convenience. It's one of the
> > features that facilitated my decision to migrate from OS/2 to Linux as
> > primary OS.
>
> Not true. I use the traditional text-mode interface of LILO (install=text).
> To supply kernel options during boot, press the Shift key (by itself) before
> the "delay" timer expires to get a boot prompt ("boot:"). Then type the
> label of the kernel you want followed by the desired boot parameters.
> For example,
>
> Linux single
>
> to boot the kernel in single-user mode. Or
>
> Linux forcepae
>
> to get a PAE-requiring kernel to boot on a Banias-class Pentium M or
> Celeron M processor, if you forgot to specify
>
> append="forcepae"
>
> in /etc/lilo.conf before running lilo. If you can't remember the names of
> your kernel labels, press the Tab key at a "boot:" prompt. LILO will
> display the names of your kernel labels followed by another "boot:" prompt.
>
> I've never used the menu-based interface of LILO, but I'm sure that there
> is a way to supply kernel options at boot time with the menu-based interface
> as well.
>
> See my LILO web page at
>
> http://www.stevesdebianstuff.org/lilo.htm
>
> for more information.
All well and good but the installer inexplicably offers a choice between
GRUB and LILO. The installer manual is unhelpful on which to choose. A
newcomer wouldn't have a clue. We do them no service with this retrograde
offering. Get rid of it.
What is the point of a choice? Just offer GRUB; it is the bootloader for
Debian and has many advantages over LILO in todayss Linux ecosystem.
People who have a great desire to use LILO can search it out.
Unmaintained in Debian, The bit-rot starts here.
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