New Bootloader for FreeBSD

Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering team's Scott Long has written a bootloader front-end script that allows one to enable/disable acpi, boot single users, etc. His primary motivation was to allow users to easily disable ACPI, since so many problems are popping up these days with it. He is hoping to have this be on at least the i386 bootcd for FreeBSD 5.1 scheduled for release June 2nd, and is looking for feedback."

Comments

Re:It's not a bootloader

[Arandir]

Get a clue dude! BSD folk (like me) don't want to write GPLd software, don't want to link to GPLd software, and don't want to put GPLd software in the base system if we can help it, but we have no problem with *using* GPLd software if its worthwhile. Use the best tool for the job.

GRUB is not part of any BSD's base system. It's part of the ports collection. The user can choose to use GRUB or not, just as they can choose to use bash or not. No recipient of a BSD system is going to encumbered by GRUB.

There are times when GPLd software does make sense for the base system (from the FreeBSD perspective). That's when the software is clearly the best of breed and won't encumber anything else. A good example is GNU tar.

GRUB and BootMgr (FreeBSD) are two different kinds of boot loaders. GRUB requires installation in a partition but offers a lot of flexibility. BootMgr only requires a boot block but has only a fraction of the feature set. Depending on your circumstances, one may be more suitable than the other. I prefer BootMgr at home because I rarely boot into other operating systems. At work I need a boot floppy to get into FreeBSD (since I can't alter the MBR). GRUB is the easiest way to make a FreeBSD boot floppy, bare none. My friend prefers GRUB because he is often booting into different operating systems and he can configure GRUB from any of them (all you need is a text editor, no boot0cfg, liloconfig, etc).

p.s. GRUB does work with FreeBSD, but it needs updating, specifically for FreeBSD-5.0.