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Your current primary bootloader on your main Gentoo machine |
Grub-legacy |
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31% |
[ 30 ] |
Grub2 |
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42% |
[ 40 ] |
Lilo |
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7% |
[ 7 ] |
Syslinux |
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7% |
[ 7 ] |
Windows bootloader + chainload |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
Any EFI based system |
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8% |
[ 8 ] |
Non-x86* based machine (colo/arcload/milo/silo/palo/...) |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
Linux Kernel built in bootstrap code |
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2% |
[ 2 ] |
Network boot of any kind |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
Something Else |
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1% |
[ 1 ] |
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Total Votes : 95 |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9645 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:58 pm Post subject: Polltime! Gentoo Boot loader |
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Ok I've also been hearing a lot of debate between going to Grub2, some of my friends refuse to go to Grub2 because the config file generation is more arcane. It indeed is. Grub-legacy is simpler... Then again lilo works...
Now, for your Gentoo. Your bootloader?
I mostly still have Grub-legacy on my machines, but intend to go to grub2. The 'weirdest' machine I'm using windows 7 bootloader that chainloads grub2 to boot Linux.
One month snapshot as these things can change over time... _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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nlsa8z6zoz7lyih3ap Guru
Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 388 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | some of my friends refuse to go to Grub2 because the config file generation is more arcane. |
I am very happy with grub2 due to it's many extra features. However I also do not like the standard way of configuring grub2.
Fortunately http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Quick_Start contains instructions on how to use grub2 just as if it was legacy-grub.
I.E. It show how to convert legacy-grub's menu.lst directly to /boot/grub/grub.cfg without ever using grab2's autoconfig.
All that is involved is a bit of minor syntax change. This is the way that I use grub2. |
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xaviermiller Bodhisattva
Joined: 23 Jul 2004 Posts: 8706 Location: ~Brussels - Belgique
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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Since I cannot vote more than once, here are my choices:
- the native system when possible : UEFI or ARM bootloader
- syslinux for the BIOS systems : it rocks and it is simple to configure and use _________________ Kind regards,
Xavier Miller |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54097 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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eccerr0r,
Why update your boot loader?
Its like firmware, you install it when you build the box, then it need not change.
I use grub-legacy, grub-static actually, as grub is a 32 bit program, on no-multilib, with 32 bit support disabled in the kernel.
Its therefore not possible to install a grub update.
This works well with both MSDOS and GPT disk labels.
Now that the kernel is a UEFI compliant program, grub2 looks like a solution in search of a problem. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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RazielFMX l33t
Joined: 23 Apr 2005 Posts: 835 Location: NY, USA
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9645 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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It's more of being able to figure out how to set it up quickly (and not keep two different bootloaders installed.)
As much as I hope that I never have to reinstall the bootloader, I have used machines to bootstrap other machines, and therefore actually use grub-install many times after the initial machine install on some machines.
Again the hope is that grub-legacy doesn't disappear from portage much like other programs that have gone away due to upstream discontinuation. I worry some day some toolchain component comes and breaks something so badly that grub-legacy won't build anymore and deemed too difficult to fix. The package gets deprecated, effectively forcing another bootloader when setting up a fresh machine as I'd all my machines to be able to rewrite its own bootsector should it become corrupt. Plus have that new machine be able to bootstrap the next machine :) _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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gotyaoi Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 01 Apr 2013 Posts: 137
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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Grub2. My situations tend to be simple enough that grub2-mkconfig "just works", so it's fairly convenient. |
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Anon-E-moose Watchman
Joined: 23 May 2008 Posts: 6095 Location: Dallas area
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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grub-legacy via grub static, it just works _________________ PRIME x570-pro, 3700x, 6.1 zen kernel
gcc 13, profile 17.0 (custom bare multilib), openrc, wayland |
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Ant P. Watchman
Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:35 am Post subject: |
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I use LILO everywhere (except on one UEFI box). I don't have any pressing desire to dual-boot livecd ISOs off a reiser4 USB RAID6 partition so this works just fine for me. |
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miket Guru
Joined: 28 Apr 2007 Posts: 483 Location: Gainesville, FL, USA
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:07 am Post subject: |
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My main machine is still on legacy grub, but everything I've been installing lately has been with extlinux. It's very capable, easy to configure, not bloated, and well maintained. Grub 2 is just over the top. The extlinux bootloader works very well with my early-userspace solution for booting root on LVM: I use busybox, static-linked LVM, but no initrd. It's very small and very fast.
I've left the grubs behind in the dirt--maybe the birds will get them. |
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vaxbrat l33t
Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 731 Location: DC Burbs
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:14 am Post subject: grub2 for btrfs |
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I went to grub2 when working with system roots on btrfs. It still has wrinkles though. |
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Fitzcarraldo Advocate
Joined: 30 Aug 2008 Posts: 2034 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:16 am Post subject: |
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I've been using GRUB 2 on my main laptop (PC BIOS; MBR HDD), chainloaded by the Windows 7 Boot Manager, for over four years.
GRUB 2 took some getting used to but I'm OK with it now, although sometimes I still forget to update GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub after building a new version of the kernel. I wish the GRUB 2 design were more robust, but it's usable once you've climbed the learning curve.
(I'm not looking forward to having to install Gentoo on a future new laptop with UEFI and GPT HDD, as I have no clue about those so far.) _________________ Clevo W230SS: amd64, VIDEO_CARDS="intel modesetting nvidia".
Compal NBLB2: ~amd64, xf86-video-ati. Dual boot Win 7 Pro 64-bit.
OpenRC udev elogind & KDE on both.
Fitzcarraldo's blog |
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EmaRsk Apprentice
Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Posts: 158 Location: Italy
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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Both generations of grub gave me huge amounts of frustration . Extlinux is ridiculously easier to manage.
I voted syslinux, but I actually use lilo on /dev/sda to chainload extlinux on each /dev/sdaX (I have a dual boot with Debian). This way I get to keep completely separated the configuration files for Gentoo and Debian.
On my next laptop I'll probably try rEFInd. |
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Gatsby Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 18 Jan 2010 Posts: 116 Location: 127.0.0.1
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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My Gentoo systems are booting with grub legacy.
Tried grub2 once, but it didn't suit my needs. It's bloated and complicated.
Smells like systemd and similar stuff.
Regards, Gatsby _________________ Γνωθι σεαυτον. |
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asturm Developer
Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 8933
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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grub-2 on anything BIOS (current main)
efibootmgr on anything UEFI |
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GabrielYYZ n00b
Joined: 03 May 2012 Posts: 24 Location: Dominican Republic
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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++ |
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Fran Guru
Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Posts: 530 Location: Coruña (Spain)
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:06 am Post subject: |
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I voted grub2, but the thread made me take a look at syslinux (extlinux). Now I'm a convert. |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9645 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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Yes syslinux is pretty neat. I probably still would be using it as a default if I hadn't gotten grub working first. _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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djdunn l33t
Joined: 26 Dec 2004 Posts: 810
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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syslinux is great, works with uefi at syslinux:6, always works, easy to write configs for, simple _________________ “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful.”
― Plato |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9645 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:54 am Post subject: |
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For those machines known to have UEFI, is there a way to get the EFI command interpreter?
I suspect it'd have to be copied onto the HDD if it's not already in firmware - I'm sort of spoiled that I do have one machine that has the EFI CLI in firmware (an ia64 box) but the two Core-i series machines I have don't appear to have the CLI... _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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Hypnos Advocate
Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 2889 Location: Omnipresent
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:59 am Post subject: |
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I'm going to use Lilo until I get a machine that it doesn't support, at which point I'll use the next simplest solution -- probably will be rEFInd. _________________ Personal overlay | Simple backup scheme |
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srs5694 Guru
Joined: 08 Mar 2004 Posts: 434 Location: Woonsocket, RI
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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eccerr0r wrote: | For those machines known to have UEFI, is there a way to get the EFI command interpreter?
I suspect it'd have to be copied onto the HDD if it's not already in firmware - I'm sort of spoiled that I do have one machine that has the EFI CLI in firmware (an ia64 box) but the two Core-i series machines I have don't appear to have the CLI... |
Yeah, if the EFI shell is not built into the firmware, you've got to either do without it or put it on hard disk. You can add it to your firmware's own boot list or launch it from a boot manager (rEFInd, gummiboot, GRUB, etc.). Some EFIs provide an option to launch a shell from their setup tools if the shell is named something specific -- usually shellx64.efi in the ESP's root directory (on x86-64 systems).
Hypnos wrote: | I'm going to use Lilo until I get a machine that it doesn't support, at which point I'll use the next simplest solution -- probably will be rEFInd. |
Be aware that there's a LILO-like boot loader for EFI, known as ELILO. If you like LILO, you might find ELILO to be a relatively simple transition. |
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swimmer Veteran
Joined: 15 Jul 2002 Posts: 1330 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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Syslinux all the way - I dropped grub{2} more than a year ago and never looked back since ... |
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likewhoa l33t
Joined: 04 Oct 2006 Posts: 778 Location: Brooklyn, New York
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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syslinux all the way. |
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py-ro Veteran
Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 1734 Location: Velbert
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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While technicaly not a Bootloader -> refind (+ kernel stub loader) |
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