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The Boot Loader Showdown

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the why-that-never-became-a-holy-war-i'll-never-know dept.

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.""

5 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Which is EXACTLY Why... by eno2001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...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.

    --
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  2. My biggest problem for not using GRUB by MikeDawg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    1. Re:My biggest problem for not using GRUB by Fred_A · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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 ?

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  3. Re:Unwelcome guest by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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...
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  4. LILO forever! by tie_guy_matt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.