Bootloaders

StumpD · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:07 pm Post subject: Bootloaders

Hi,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question but I am very new to LINUX having been a dire-hard Windows user for many years (sorry!).

I have GENTOO installed on my system now and it is running hunky dory so I have no real issues but one thing which is bugging me cuz I just don't undertsand it is Bootloaders (and this isn't just with GENTOO).

I undertand if I want to dual boot between Windows and LINUX (or even different flavours of LINUX say Mandrake and SUSE etc..) I need to install GRUB or LILO but if I have a single OS on my machine won't the standard Windows MBR work?

I have no problem with GRUB or LILO etc on the machine I am just trying to understand why I need it? I did once (as a test) install Xandros and once everything was up and running booted from a Windows 98 CD and did FDISK /MBR (to put the old loader back on) and rebooted to a dead machine (I did recover but only by putting a bootloader back on).

I am learning to love LINUX more and more but this particualr area is an itch I can't seem to scratch and would appreciate some advice regarding it. Is it a case that the Windows Bootloader perhaps does not know how to load LINUX code or should it work and I am just being unlucky?

Regards,
Dave.

sternklang · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:14 pm Post subject:

Hi, and welcome to Gentoo!

It's not a stupid question. It's just an evil company.

Microsoft's bootloader could boot other OSes many years back (although I think only OS/2 was supported at that time) but they deliberately changed it so it would only boot Microsoft OSes and that's the way it's been for years. They would also have to do a lot of development to be able to boot Linux, xBSD, etc., and that's just not going to happen.

cyblord · Guru Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 424

check this link out:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual_Boot_from_Windows_Bootloader_%28NTLDR%29_and_why

I hope it helps!

magic919 · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the other side :-)

1clue · Advocate Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 2569

Nobody came out and gave you the short answer, assuming you don't know really what a boot loader does.

A boot loader is a very small program that knows how to load the operating system you've chosen.

Some hardware platforms do the same thing in some other way, so you don't need something on a disk, but a lot of platforms need a boot loader.

Any hardware platform knows enough to load from a special place and then run what's in that place. On standard PC hardware, that means loading off a boot block. A boot block is pretty small, so generally what happens is a program (boot loader) is on there that knows to load a configuration and then load something else.

Whether you have one OS or five, it really doesn't matter that much. You need something small that knows what to do next.

StumpD · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:37 am Post subject:

Thanks everybody for your replies.

I did understand Bootloaders to a degree just not why the standard Bootloader wouldn't boot LINUX.

I can see now why I need LILO (or is it GRUB GENTOO puts on?) whether I have one or 5 OS's and as I said I have no real problem with that (espically now I understand it).

One machine down and I am so looking forward to wiping Window's off the other two now![post=][/post]

asiobob · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:01 pm Post subject:

Well LILO and GRUB are two different bootloaders available for Linux. Most Gentoo users tend to use GRUB although the choice is left to you