Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Polltime! Gentoo Boot loader
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

Goto page 1, 2  Next  
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo Chat
View previous topic :: View next topic  

Your current primary bootloader on your main Gentoo machine
Grub-legacy
31%
 31%  [ 30 ]
Grub2
42%
 42%  [ 40 ]
Lilo
7%
 7%  [ 7 ]
Syslinux
7%
 7%  [ 7 ]
Windows bootloader + chainload
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Any EFI based system
8%
 8%  [ 8 ]
Non-x86* based machine (colo/arcload/milo/silo/palo/...)
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Linux Kernel built in bootstrap code
2%
 2%  [ 2 ]
Network boot of any kind
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Something Else
1%
 1%  [ 1 ]
Total Votes : 95

Author Message
eccerr0r
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 9645
Location: almost Mile High in the USA

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:58 pm    Post subject: Polltime! Gentoo Boot loader Reply with quote

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
What am I supposed watching?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
nlsa8z6zoz7lyih3ap
Guru
Guru


Joined: 25 Sep 2007
Posts: 388
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
xaviermiller
Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva


Joined: 23 Jul 2004
Posts: 8706
Location: ~Brussels - Belgique

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54097
Location: 56N 3W

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RazielFMX
l33t
l33t


Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 835
Location: NY, USA

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rEFInd (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
eccerr0r
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 9645
Location: almost Mile High in the USA

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
What am I supposed watching?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gotyaoi
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 01 Apr 2013
Posts: 137

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Grub2. My situations tend to be simple enough that grub2-mkconfig "just works", so it's fairly convenient.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Anon-E-moose
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 6095
Location: Dallas area

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ant P.
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 18 Apr 2009
Posts: 6920

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
miket
Guru
Guru


Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Posts: 483
Location: Gainesville, FL, USA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
vaxbrat
l33t
l33t


Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 731
Location: DC Burbs

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:14 am    Post subject: grub2 for btrfs Reply with quote

I went to grub2 when working with system roots on btrfs. It still has wrinkles though.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Fitzcarraldo
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 30 Aug 2008
Posts: 2034
Location: United Kingdom

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EmaRsk
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 158
Location: Italy

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Both generations of grub gave me huge amounts of frustration :x. 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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gatsby
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 18 Jan 2010
Posts: 116
Location: 127.0.0.1

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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. :evil:

Regards, Gatsby
_________________
Γνωθι σεαυτον.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
asturm
Developer
Developer


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 8933

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

grub-2 on anything BIOS (current main)
efibootmgr on anything UEFI
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GabrielYYZ
n00b
n00b


Joined: 03 May 2012
Posts: 24
Location: Dominican Republic

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RazielFMX wrote:
rEFInd (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/)


++
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Fran
Guru
Guru


Joined: 29 Feb 2004
Posts: 530
Location: Coruña (Spain)

PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I voted grub2, but the thread made me take a look at syslinux (extlinux). Now I'm a convert.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
eccerr0r
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 9645
Location: almost Mile High in the USA

PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
What am I supposed watching?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
djdunn
l33t
l33t


Joined: 26 Dec 2004
Posts: 810

PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
eccerr0r
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 9645
Location: almost Mile High in the USA

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
What am I supposed watching?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hypnos
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 18 Jul 2002
Posts: 2889
Location: Omnipresent

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
srs5694
Guru
Guru


Joined: 08 Mar 2004
Posts: 434
Location: Woonsocket, RI

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
swimmer
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 1330
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Syslinux all the way - I dropped grub{2} more than a year ago and never looked back since ... ;-)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
likewhoa
l33t
l33t


Joined: 04 Oct 2006
Posts: 778
Location: Brooklyn, New York

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

syslinux all the way.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
py-ro
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 1734
Location: Velbert

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

While technicaly not a Bootloader -> refind (+ kernel stub loader)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo Chat All times are GMT
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum