CentOS - Jul 2005 - Re: boot failure after install -- my bootloader beat up your honor student

Feizhou wrote:
> I completely disagree with you here since I use grub over pxe to 
> install/boot my servers and avoid any local bootloading problems.
From: Peter Farrow <peter at farrows.org>
> In one sentence,  grub is poorly documented, over complicated pants, and 
> lilo ROCKS...
At the risk of offending even more people by suggesting a "middle
ground" where _each_ might actually be applicable more than the other
(gasp!  not again!):  

- GRUB is an intelligent boot-loader that is more "dynamic" because it
inspects the disk at boot-time, but that requires it have drivers for
the disk label (partition table format), slices (filesystems), etc... as
appropriate, including introducing geometry issues if GRUB is booting
multiple installs, OSes, etc... if the other installs don't agree with GRUB
on geometry.

- LILO is a dumb, "boot this sector offset" boot-loader, but that
means
it really doesn't care much for the underlying disk label, slices, geometry,
etc... other than some basic disk label editing/modification capabilities
(although that does introduce some disk label, slice, geometry, etc...
considerations if they are used).

Each has own strengths and weaknesses, and should be used accordingly.

(BS ducks and awaits his fate in the fallout ;-)


--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org

Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> Feizhou wrote:
> 
>>I completely disagree with you here since I use grub over pxe to 
>>install/boot my servers and avoid any local bootloading problems.
> 
> 
> From: Peter Farrow <peter at farrows.org>
> 
>>In one sentence,  grub is poorly documented, over complicated pants, and
>>lilo ROCKS...
> 
> 
> At the risk of offending even more people by suggesting a "middle
> ground" where _each_ might actually be applicable more than the other
> (gasp!  not again!):  
There is no middle ground on this one...they are not
comparable.
> 
> - GRUB is an intelligent boot-loader that is more "dynamic"
because it
> inspects the disk at boot-time, but that requires it have drivers for
> the disk label (partition table format), slices (filesystems), etc... as
> appropriate, including introducing geometry issues if GRUB is booting
> multiple installs, OSes, etc... if the other installs don't agree with
GRUB
> on geometry.
This hardly does justice to the power and flexibility that grub gives 
you. Now that FC4 Anaconda does root on mirror install right, the last 
likely to be widely encountered problem with using grub on RH/FC will be 
toast. If you ask me, this one is the only problem people have with grub 
sans those who can't be bothered to learn grub
properly.
> 
> - LILO is a dumb, "boot this sector offset" boot-loader, but that
means
> it really doesn't care much for the underlying disk label, slices,
geometry,
> etc... other than some basic disk label editing/modification capabilities
> (although that does introduce some disk label, slice, geometry, etc...
> considerations if they are used).
don't forget install time configuration only.