Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #5340

Re: Can LILO do this too?

Show all headers | View raw

At Sat, 19 May 2012 14:23:38 +0000 (UTC) no.top.post@gmail.com wrote:

> 
> Having grub setup to boot from a CompactFlash,
> and then plugging eg. a USB disk before you boot,
> means that the CF may change from being /dev/sdb,
> to being /dev/sdc,
> because the USB disk gets 'allocated in front of'
> the CF -- apparently.
> 
> With grub, you can just 'live edit' the immediately
> visible menu, from sdb to sdc.
> 
> Besides grub can access a device via its LABEL;
> so it doesn't matter <where the device is located>.
> 
> What do you do if you've got LILO instead?!

You can't do this.  LILO only uses low-level BIOS sector I/O calls
using BIOS defined device IDs.  It is unfortunate that some BIOS will
'move' hard disks #'s around when a *removable* device is plugged in. 
*I* would consider this a BIOS design defect -- complain to the BIOS
vendor.  (I'm assuming that the CF device is a 'hard connected' device,
in the sense that the CF interface is 'soldered' onto the motherboard
and is not itself a USB pluggable device.)  Note that what the kernel
driver scan does later is a completely separate issue.  One should NOT
depend on using '/dev/sdXY' in /etc/fstab or as an argument to the root=
kernel parameter.  It is always going to be better to use LABEL=<mumble> or
UUID=<mumble> in both of these cases. 

> 
> How is it possible that a 'knl2.4 grub' can see
> a knl2.4 originated ext2, but can't see a
> knl2.6 originated ext2 ?
> 
> Since grub has got the various FS-drivers: ext2, ext3, js*,
> one can understand that it couldn't read an ext3 if the
> driver was missing; but aren't ALL ext2 equal, independant
> of the kernel-version that created them?

Possibly not.  I guess there are really something like ext2.1, ext2.2,
etc. I suspect that the *real* kernel drivers are 'smart enough' to
deal with the differences (eg a kernel 2.4 ext2 driver can handle a FS
built under kernel 2.6), but the grub 'drivers' are not as clever -- eg
they don't have the sorts of fall-back handling for 'extensions' they
don't understand.

> What about different inode sizes, can grub handle all?
> 
> Of course, it's nice with grub: it shows you what IT can see,
> because even before the OS has booted, grub can effectively
> do a <fdisk -l>. But with LILO, you are in the dark.
> 
> The <old>-grub has some quirks.
> Is it worth getting grub-2 -- for distributions designed for LILO?
> 
> I've got a little-known-slak-based distribution CD, which allows
> <editing of the knl, initrd, vga ..etc> before booting, which seems
> nice; but I'm confused, because I thought this distribution used LILO.
>  What does the <syslinux> system do?
> 
> == TIA
> 
>                                                          

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller@deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
()  ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\  www.asciiribbon.org   -- against proprietary attachments


                                                                                                                              

Back to comp.os.linux.misc | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Can LILO do this too? no.top.post@gmail.com - 2012-05-19 14:23 +0000
  Re: Can LILO do this too? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2012-05-19 11:17 -0500
  Re: Can LILO do this too? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2012-05-19 12:31 -0400
    Re: Can LILO do this too? SM <kasmra@ne-spamon.gmail.com> - 2012-05-19 17:41 +0000
      Re: Can LILO do this too? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2012-05-19 14:36 -0400
        Re: Can LILO do this too? SM <kasmra@ne-spamon.gmail.com> - 2012-05-19 18:58 +0000
          Re: Can LILO do this too? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2012-05-19 15:39 -0400
        Re: Can LILO do this too? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2012-05-19 13:59 -0500
        Re: Can LILO do this too? "Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-05-19 14:59 -0400
      Re: Can LILO do this too? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2012-05-19 17:27 -0500
  Re: Can LILO do this too? Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2012-05-20 18:57 +0000
    Re: Can LILO do this too? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2012-05-20 18:50 -0400
      Re: Can LILO do this too? Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2012-05-21 21:53 +0000

csiph-web