Linix:Boot Loader GRUB

In my previuos post we have seen about the boot loader LILO
However lets see the initial boot process of LILO
When LILO initially loads, it brings up in order each of the letters -- L-I-L-O. If all the letters come up, the first stage boot was successful. Anything less indicates a problem:

• L: The first stage boot loader has been loaded. If LILO stops here, there were problems loading the second stage boot loader. This is usually accompanied by an error code. The common problems at this stage are media problems or incorrect disk parameters specified in your lilo.conf file.
• LI: The second stage boot loader has been loaded. LILO halting at this point indicates the second stage boot loader could not be executed. Again, this can be due to problems similar to just L: loading or if the boot.b file has been corrupted, moved, or deleted.
• LIL: The second stage boot loader has now been executed. At this point, media problem could again be responsible or the map file (as specified in the lilo.conf file) could have had problems finding the descriptor tables.
• LIL?: Loaded to the same point as above. This usually means the second stage boot loader loaded at an incorrect address, caused most likely by boot.b being in a different place than specified in the lilo.conf file.
• LIL-: Loaded to the same point as above. Problem loading the descriptor table, most likely due to a corrupt descriptor table.
• LILO: LILO has successfully loaded with no errors.

GRand Unified Boot loader (commonly known as GRUB) seems to have somewhat taken the boot loaders crown from LILO.

If you want to migrate to GRUB get the latest version of GRUB and configure it.

GRUB configuration is all done through a configuration file located in /boot/grub/grub.conf.

Snap

default=0 #Which to load by default with reference to index title  timeout=10 #location of image to be used for background GUIsplashimage=(hd1,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz password --md5 $1$opeVt0$Y.br.18LyAasRsGdSKLYlp1 title Red Hat Linux password --md5 $1$0peVt0$Y.br.18LyAasRsGdSKLYlp1 root (hd1,2) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img title Windows XP password --md5 $1$0peVt0$Y.br.18LyAasRsGdSKLYlp1 rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1

GRUB vs. LILO

As stated at the start of this article, all boot loaders work in a similar way to fulfill a common purpose. But LILO and GRUB do have a number of differences:

• LILO has no interactive command interface, whereas GRUB does.
• LILO does not support booting from a network, whereas GRUB does.
• LILO stores information regarding the location of the operating systems it can to load physically on the MBR. If you change your LILO config file, you have to rewrite the LILO stage one boot loader to the MBR. Compared with GRUB, this is a much more risky option since a misconfigured MBR could leave the system unbootable. With GRUB, if the configuration file is configured incorrectly, it will simply default to the GRUB command-line interface.