The Boot Loader Showdown

An anonymous reader writes "What utility do practically all Linux users use, regardless of their job or expertise? A boot loader. In this article from IBM, see how a boot loader works, meet two popular loaders -- LILO (LInux LOader) and GNU GRUB (GRand Unified Boot loader) -- and review the pros and cons of each." From the article: "Most simply, a boot loader loads the operating system. When your machine loads its operating system, the BIOS reads the first 512 bytes of your bootable media (which is known as the master boot record, or MBR). You can store the boot record of only one operating system in a single MBR, so a problem becomes apparent when you require multiple operating systems. Hence the need for more flexible boot loaders.""

Comments

Which is EXACTLY Why...

[eno2001]

...GRUB is the ultimate choice. It understands multiple OSes (including Windows XP), is very flexible and easy to use and uses a highly ethical license. Oh... and it doesn't require you to reinstall it after you make a change to it's config file like LILO does. No need to read any further. I have spoken.

Is it really that important?

[CastrTroy]

Is it really all the important? You see it for about 3 seconds, each time you boot your computer. If you are booting your computer more than 3 times a day, you should look into VMware so you don't have to reboot so often to access all those different OSes you have. Either that, or switch to a more stable OS. As long as it can boot the OSes you want, is there any real reason to have one over the other? I think this is kind of pointless. I just go with whatever my distro (mandriva) offers by default (lilo). It's such a minimal part of my computer, that I couldn't be bothered to even think of changing it.

Reboot

[goombah99]

It's a carbon copy Reboot of this slashdot article.

My biggest problem for not using GRUB

[MikeDawg]

My biggest problem, and why I stick with LILO as opposed to using GRUB, is because of the current state of the GRUB development. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with the GRUB project, I have seen their website, and read their information, but I don't understand where they are at in their development, especially with GRUB 2. GRUB has been labelled their legacy product, which does mean it has been released, and relatively stable. However, they have completely stopped work on their legacy GRUB product and began working on GRUB 2. GRUB 2 doesn't have a stable release yet (they have builds released via CVS or whatever build versioning system they use). What should we expect from GRUB 2, that GRUB or LILO doesn't offer? I don't like the setup and install process for GRUB, I find it more convoluted than the setup, install, and configuration (lilo.conf) of LILO.

Re:My biggest problem for not using GRUB

[Fred_A]

So ? If Grub works and Grub 2 isn't stable yet, just use Grub.
Or Lilo, or whatever else.

But I don't get the logic of "X works fine, however they're working on Y (labeled as X 2) which isn't done, so they aren't working on X anymore, so I'd rather use Z..."

Just say you like Lilo better than Grub, it's not like anybody cares anyway...

Re:My biggest problem for not using GRUB

[Fred_A]

Old and crappy it may be but it works and it has been chosen over numerous alternatives in a number of cases. So basically it works, there isn't much to add to it as it is, so unless a major bug is discovered, there's no reason to actively maintain it.
The main thing Grub has against it is that it's relatively ugly. The fact that the 1.x branch isn't actively developped is quite irrelevant. Because it works. Should it suddenly stop working, well, there are lots of other similar programs available.

Maybe I'm dense but I really don't get your concern. Are you worried you won't be able to get spare parts when your program will get worn out from booting everyday or something ?

Except for one feature

[dan g]

GRUB still lacks LILO's incredibly useful feature of changing the default image to boot for only the next boot process. This functionality is not wholly replaced by the 'fallback' directive either. I use GRUB now but when I used to often dual boot I would use LILO for the ability to be able to say from the command line "boot windows" and then have linux be the default boot image again after I shutdown windows.

Re:Unwelcome guest

[Fred_A]

I've tried standing on my head spitting wooden nickles, and nothing worked at removing grub.

Did you wave the dead chicken ?
You forgot to wave the dead chicken didn't you ?
Bah, newbie...

LILO forever!

[tie_guy_matt]

One of the things I love about linux is that you don't have to re-learn how to use everything with each version of the OS. So you know how to set all of the network setting under NT (that is to say you know where all the happy icons to do it are.) Well with 2000 and then again with XP you have to look like an idiot looking through all of the happy icons trying to find the right one to reset your network configuration (or whatever.) How often have you felt like saying "it was here under NT or 98 or 3.11 or whatever, so why isn't it here now?" Well it is not there anymore under XP! And you are going to have re-learn everything (and maybe re-train your staff) because someone says that this new way is better. If this new way is so much better why didn't they have it set up this way from the very beginning?

I have used lilo from the beginning of my linux adventure. I know how to configure it and I know how it works. It does everything I need it to do (which is mostly just to load linux and maybe keep track of several kernels/ distros that I am playing with.)

So why should I even spend 2 seconds trying to figure out how to use grub? Gentoo tells you to use grub by default. I say no I will always install and use lilo until grub does something that I want/need that lilo doesn't do. True if I were just starting out I would learn grub -- but that ship has sailed. Once I know how to do something I don't want to relearn it just because someone says I should.

Re:GRUB!

[airjrdn]

The laptop's keyboard and pointing device are USB! (really stupid idea dell!)

Fun! it's 2006 and the hottest bootloader does not deal with current tech very well.

So who are you blaming?

Who cares? - You should never know its there.

[PhYrE2k2]

I'm really not trying to be a troll here, but a boot loader is such a small part of the OS. Nothing is saying you can't use LILO, GRUB, or any of the other smaller boot loaders out there (or bigger ones from former companies such as PowerQuest that also supported Linux). Each has their plusses and their minuses and they're all nicely documented in countless comparisons. Each distro has its own preference, but often gives you the option.

So the answer is to use what you're comfortable with. It's not like we're comparing Zeus/Apache, Linux/Windows, Vim/Joe- this is a boot loader. It runs for fractions of a second and then you never see it again. If it does its job, you should never even know that its there.

-M

Skip to here: Thread Summary

[carn1fex]

user 1 states that X is great because it does A, B and C

user 2 replies X is totally lame because it doesnt do D and E, but Y does it awez0mex0rz

user 1 replies that Y is fine but if you want to do A youre up shit creak.

user 3 then makes the brilliant observation identical to the end of every other goddamn technical showdown that.. say it with me.. IT DEPENDS!!! OMFG +5 INSIGHTFUL! huzzah. Now move along, youre coffee is getting cold.