LILO-LITE - Answers to questions and issues raised
Mark Hobley
project.
I have now answered some of your questions, in relation to the reasons
for starting this project.
For those who are interested, this is posted at:
http://markhobley.yi.org/linux/projects/lilolite/why.html
Tauno Voipio
"Mark Hobley" <markh...@hotpop.deletethisbit.com> wrote in message
news:3fcdcab8...@news.blueyonder.co.uk...
If you need a really light way of loading, just copy the kernel onto a
floppy and there you go. Hardly can be lighter.
Have a look at the kernel sources.
Why is a boot loader *not* suitable for a first project:
- you have to have good understanding of the BIOS and underlying hardware
- you have to understand the booting conventions
- the boot loader is 16 bit code, not an easy piece under Linux
- you may need to switch back and forth between 16 and 32 bit modes
- it's bloody difficult to debug when something goes awry
Please tell again how you could make LILO lighter and keep the necessary
functionality.
Been there, done that.
Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio @ iki fi
Christopher Browne
> Please tell again how you could make LILO lighter and keep the necessary
> functionality.
Furthermore, what people are _actually_ looking for are HEAVIER WEIGHT
alternatives to LILO. Distributions are, increasingly, booting using
GRUB, which has a whole lot of additional functionality.
--
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Kasper Dupont
>
> Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when "Tauno Voipio" <tauno....@iki.fi.SPAMBAIT_REMOVE.invalid> would write:
> > Please tell again how you could make LILO lighter and keep the necessary
> > functionality.
>
> Furthermore, what people are _actually_ looking for are HEAVIER WEIGHT
> alternatives to LILO. Distributions are, increasingly, booting using
> GRUB, which has a whole lot of additional functionality.
At first I was skeptical about that, but after using it for
some time, I must say, I like it. The fact that it doesn't
break if you forget to run /sbin/lilo and that it allows
you to specify a lot more different options at boot time
without having to have them in the configuration file is
really nice.
I think part of grub itself is still loaded using a list
of sectors, which then have to be rebuild when you update
grub. But I don't think I ever did that except when
installing a new version of the distribution.
--
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Kasper Dupont
>
> If you need a really light way of loading, just copy the kernel onto a
> floppy and there you go. Hardly can be lighter.
Deprecated and removed from 2.6. Suggested alternative for
a lightweight boot loader for floppies is SYSLINUX. Works
with FAT12 formatted floppies and nothing else. It has a
lot more features than the kernel builtin, but still
very lightweight compared to LILO. I think SYSLINUX is and
always was (at least for the last four years when I have
been using it) the best bootloader for floppies.
Tauno Voipio
"Kasper Dupont" <kas...@daimi.au.dk> wrote in message
news:3FCE6DA6...@daimi.au.dk...
> Tauno Voipio wrote:
> >
> > If you need a really light way of loading, just copy the kernel onto a
> > floppy and there you go. Hardly can be lighter.
>
> Deprecated and removed from 2.6. Suggested alternative for
> a lightweight boot loader for floppies is SYSLINUX. Works
> with FAT12 formatted floppies and nothing else. It has a
> lot more features than the kernel builtin, but still
> very lightweight compared to LILO. I think SYSLINUX is and
> always was (at least for the last four years when I have
> been using it) the best bootloader for floppies.
>
---------
Thanks for the update - I'm still staying with 2.4 till 2.6 can be trusted
and it does not break all the drivers I have.
Kasper Dupont
>
> Thanks for the update - I'm still staying with 2.4 till 2.6 can be trusted
> and it does not break all the drivers I have.
When did you last try 2.6? Doesn't it work now?
Did you report any bugs found?
Tauno Voipio
> Tauno Voipio wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for the update - I'm still staying with 2.4 till 2.6 can be
trusted
> > and it does not break all the drivers I have.
>
> When did you last try 2.6? Doesn't it work now?
> Did you report any bugs found?
>
The main problem is in I/O drivers: AFAIK the 2.4 drivers are not compatible
and I'd not do it again (already ported some from 2.2 to 2.4).
Kasper Dupont
What kind of hardware is it, you say doesn't work with
Linux 2.6 yet?
Tim Smith
Browne wrote:
> Furthermore, what people are _actually_ looking for are HEAVIER WEIGHT
> alternatives to LILO. Distributions are, increasingly, booting using
> GRUB, which has a whole lot of additional functionality.
Where GRUB really shines, though, is when used independently of a
distribution. I've made a bootable CD with GRUB and the ext2 intermediate
stage. Whatever boot loaded a given distribution uses, if I screw it up, I
can boot from my GRUB CD, find the kernel, and load it.
The only glitch I run into with this is that it sometimes takes a few
guesses to figure out what root= should be for the kernel. It might be nice
if the kernel were changed so that when it panics because it cannot mount
root, it dumps it's notion of the partition table just before the panic.
(Yes, I realize it prints that out when it it finds the drives, but that
often scrolls by fast and is long gone by the time the "can't mount root"
panic. Printing it again right there would give you a chance to see it,
which would greatly help in getting the right root= on the next try).
--
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--Tim Smith
Kasper Dupont
>
> (Yes, I realize it prints that out when it it finds the drives, but that
> often scrolls by fast and is long gone by the time the "can't mount root"
> panic. Printing it again right there would give you a chance to see it,
> which would greatly help in getting the right root= on the next try).
Did you ever try Shift+PageUp?
Måns Rullgård
>> (Yes, I realize it prints that out when it it finds the drives, but that
>> often scrolls by fast and is long gone by the time the "can't mount root"
>> panic. Printing it again right there would give you a chance to see it,
>> which would greatly help in getting the right root= on the next try).
>
> Did you ever try Shift+PageUp?
That doesn't work when the kernel has panicked.
--
Måns Rullgård
m...@kth.se
Kasper Dupont
Sometimes it does. I'm not sure exactly when it works
and when it doesn't work.
Jerry Peters
> M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> >
> > Kasper Dupont <kas...@daimi.au.dk> writes:
> >
> > >> (Yes, I realize it prints that out when it it finds the drives, but that
> > >> often scrolls by fast and is long gone by the time the "can't mount root"
> > >> panic. Printing it again right there would give you a chance to see it,
> > >> which would greatly help in getting the right root= on the next try).
> > >
> > > Did you ever try Shift+PageUp?
> >
> > That doesn't work when the kernel has panicked.
>
> Sometimes it does. I'm not sure exactly when it works
> and when it doesn't work.
>
least with the 2.4 kernels I've been using.
Jerry
Måns Rullgård
>> > >> (Yes, I realize it prints that out when it it finds the
>> > >> drives, but that often scrolls by fast and is long gone by the
>> > >> time the "can't mount root" panic. Printing it again right
>> > >> there would give you a chance to see it, which would greatly
>> > >> help in getting the right root= on the next try).
>> > >
>> > > Did you ever try Shift+PageUp?
>> >
>> > That doesn't work when the kernel has panicked.
>>
>> Sometimes it does. I'm not sure exactly when it works
>> and when it doesn't work.
>>
> It seems to be that if the keyboard lights are flashing it fails, at
> least with the 2.4 kernels I've been using.
Scrolling fails if there's something interesting just off-screen.
--
Måns Rullgård
m...@kth.se