On Sat, 31 Jan 2015 20:31:07 -0500
Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???> wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at 12:59:51PM -0500, Neo Futur wrote:
> > I completely agree with most of the comments above about grub2.
> > I manage dedicated server and build my own grsec kernel, so I often
> > have to use the bootloader, so many times I couldnt get it to boot
> > with grub2 after hours trying and as soon as I tried with lilo or
> > grub-legacy it worked immediately my kernel was not at fault but
> > some obscure grub2 problem.
> >
> > So I upvote this idea of having devuan coming with a different
> > default bootloader, wether it is grub1 or lilo ( or whatever is
> > simple enough to be used by an average human, meaning not grub2 )
>
> Lilo is easy to use, its configuration files are somewhat
> comprehensible, but it dooes take a while befre you understand
> what's what, because the interaction between syntax and semantics
> isn't that well documented (at least, it wsan't long ago when I still
> needed to read it).
>
> THe big problem with lilo is that at the time of running the lilo
> command, it figures out exactly where the boot-time files are and
> sets up a table to be used at boot time. If those files are moved on
> disk for any reason, even if they're in the same logical location i
> the file system, it won't boot.
>
> Such file movement cab happen when one upgrades the kernel to a new
> version that still has the same file name. Of course, when you
> upgrade the kernel, dpkg will cause lilo to be rerun.. But if
> something goe wrong with that, you could be doomed.

Not necessarily doomed. Bust back in with System Rescue CD or Super
Grub Disk, chroot yourself into a replica of the system's file
hierarchy, repair the LILO file, and rerun lilo.

[snip]


> I try to have multiple ways of booting my system, just in case.

Truer words have never been spoken. It might even be a good idea to
have a tiny, no initramfs, Linux you can boot to in case. I used to do
that all the time.

By the way, I wasn't saying LILO or extlinux should be the *default*, I
was just saying they should be available as packages.

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance