Quoting Simon Hobson (linux@???):

> But didn't LILO have similar (or worse) problems ? It's a long time
> since I've used it, but didn't break any time up updated anything -
> and you had to remember to re-install it so it could update the block
> list (because it just had a list of blocks, it didn't understand
> filesystems) for loading the initial image ? Or something like that ?

To quote 'Zen of LILO' on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Kernel/ :

A lot of people never learned the Zen of LILO:

1. /sbin/lilo (the "map installer") is best thought of as a compiler,
and /etc/lilo.conf as its source code (input).

2. Therefore, if you change /etc/lilo.conf or any of the files it points
to, you must run /sbin/lilo before rebooting, to "recompile".

3. You should always have a "safeboot" stanza in /etc/lilo.conf,
pointing to a known-good kernel image that you never fool with, as a
fallback. This ensures that if, e.g., you compile a new kernel but
accidentally omit console support, you can easily recover.

GRUB is a capable and flexible bootloader, but practically all of the
reasons commonly cited for it being preferable to LILO boil down to "I
once messed with my boot files before reading LILO documentation, shot
myself in the foot, and therefore blame LILO."

The 'safeboot' stanza you keep in lilo.conf (pointing to tested-good
boot files that you don't touch) is your protection against forgetting
to re-run /sbin/lilo after installing a new kernel binary, system map
file, or initrd, or moving one of those files to a new name/location, or
compiling a non-functional kernel, or anything like that. It was/is
really that simple.

And even if you failed to maintain a 'safeboot' configuration, you could
always boot a live CD, chroot, fix the boot files, re-run /sbin/lilo.

But anyway, I look forward to losing GRUB and getting over to extlinux.

-- 
Cheers,             Grossman's Law:  "In time of crisis, people do not rise to
Rick Moen           the occasion.  They fall to the level of their training."
rick@???          http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#grossman
McQ! (4x80)