From: almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Werner Almesberger) Subject: Re: LILO - Generic boot loader (ALPHA TEST RELEASE) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 09:15:37 GMT
In article <derry.709780889@sfu.ca> derry@fraser.sfu.ca (Andrew Derry) writes:
> Doesn't shoelace do this already? (it does on my compuer..) What's
> the advantage of lilo?
Shoelace does some of it, but has the following problems:
- it depends on the Minix FS. If your root partition uses some different
FS type (i.e. the new BIG FS), Shoelace will stop to work. LILO can
boot from (almost (1)) any file system the kernel is kind enough to
recognize.
- I don't think Shoelace can boot files from other devices than the root
partition. (This is admittedly less useful as it may sound, because
LILO depends on a map file of which only one copy exists. (2))
- I hope (haven't tested it yet) that LILO can replace the master boot
sector on Linux-only systems. I don't know whether Shoelace has this
ability.
- Shoelace prints many "garbage" messages that made sense for Minix, but
don't for Linux.
- as Bruce Evans has pointed out to me, (at least) parts of Shoelace are
under Minix copyright.
(1) Currently excluded: file systems that don't support bmap (e.g. MS-DOS
file systems with odd cluster sizes) and SCSI disks.
(2) I could add generation of multiple map files, though ...
One thing Shoelace can do that LILO can't (and never will) is to boot
arbitrary files, because it can read the entire file system. With LILO,
you're limited to four different kernels. (Six if you're ready to edit
lilo.h and to sacrifice the space reserved for partition tables.)
- Werner
-- _________________________________________________________________________ / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch / / IFW A44 Tel. +41 1 254 7213 almesberger@rzvax.ethz.ch / /_BITNET:_ALMESBER@CZHETH5A__HEPNET/CHADNET:_[20579::]57414::ALMESBERGER_/