Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.""

9 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. more like dupeloader by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    so, which dupeloader is the best?
    I use CmdrTaco, works best with my old version of the beowulf cluster....

  2. Re:ahh by rco3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So now what you're saying is that Linux thing is now on computers?

    That's right. It's not just for toasters any more.

    --

    Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
  3. I was going to post by pklong · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was going to post but computer says LIL-

    --

    Philip

    Signatures are broken

  4. Other lesser known boot loaders... by ylikone · · Score: 5, Informative
    XOSL (graphical)

    GAG (graphical)

    Gujin

    Syslinux

    --
    Meh.
  5. What utliity do practically all Linux users use? by Caspian · · Score: 5, Funny
    What utility do practically all Linux users use, regardless of their job or expertise?
    Windows.

    I keed, I keed! ;)
    --
    With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
  6. Neither! Luna works best... by justinchudgar · · Score: 5, Funny

    My kitten Luna loads my boots with shredded paper and cat toys every night. She is the best boot loader ever!

    --
    WARNING: Smoking this sig may cause lowered IQ, insanity or short term memory loss. It is also really bad for your monit
  7. 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.

    --

    YOU'RE WINNER !
    Another lame blog

  8. Re:GRUB! by Lussarn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try enable "USB Legacy support" or similiar in BIOS. Has helped me every time.

  9. How to program a bootstrap loader by uriah923 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This article explains how to write your own boot sector. The tutorial includes assembly language code to demonstrate loading and executing a binary image from a FAT filesystem. It's also an interesting read if you want to understand the fundamentals of the X86 boot process.

    --
    -Brandon "How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?"