Best Boot Loader

[starbuck8968]

What is the best boot loader??
I'm trying to find a boot loader for my Linux/2000 box. Can you guys help me??

lilo is out of the question cuz I've fiddled with it too much and after the 4th format/install, I've given up.

I think I wanna use grub, but is there a better one out there?

Is the grub that comes with mandrake, the same as the gnu grub? I'm not sure, cuz it says that gnu grub is in alpha stage, and I'm not sure if mandrake would do that.

Oh... I'm running Slackware 7.1, if that helps. Booting with a boot floppy is getting annoying, so a good boot manager would be nice.

Thanx everyone!

[Sweede]

Windows 2000 by far.

its fairly simple to get it to work with linux systems.
havent been able to figure out FreeBSD totally though, had to boot linux then use LILO to boot FreeBSD.

search around through some of my more recent posts, you'll find some info

[xhadow]

Try the Smart Boot Manager, I think it can boot OS even from slave hdd.

[nuttydude]

Bootmagic (comes with partition magic) is my favorite. I have it dual booting w2k and slackware. You still should install lilo, if you are using slack v7.1, it boots above the 1024 cylinder so thats not a concern.


[This message has been edited by nuttydude (edited 07 November 2000).]

[starbuck8968]

I've been trying darnit!

I've been installing into the root directory
Should I just do an MBR install?? It says that it isn't recommended, but I guess I'll give it a try.

[Gweedo]

Just install LILO bootloader to a floppy. This is what I have done ever since it lost its mind in my MBR. Has not failed me yet. I never use my floppy so it is also no inconvienance. Just another idea.

[starbuck8968]

But the damn floppy drive is slow as hell...

Well anyways.. I got lilo t work finally. Damn config files. Oh well..
Thanx for your help though.

[DrDrake]

GRUB! Get mandrake 7.2!

[LordStanley]

Did you try to use LILO and run in to problems?

i say use LILO

[X_console]

I've never had a problem installing LILO on the MBR. Give it a go. If something goes wrong, then you could just do a 'fdisk /mbr' and that might fix it.

[Phreakee]

you can also just install lilo with the -u option if you don't like lilo.

I've never had any problems with it! Only that when I installed Red Hat 7 it didn't give me an option for my win2k partition.. No problem just edit lilo.conf and add it manually! That is what I LOVE about Linux, I have the option to do that!! No if I could just dump my windows partition, if only my company would get away from some "winbloze only" apps!!!!!!

[starbuck8968]

Someone said something about using win2k as a boot loader??
How do I set that up?

I already got lilo up and running, but I just wanna see if i like it better.

[SUOrangeman]

To add Linux to the NT4/2000 boot loader,

1. Install LILO/grub to the Linux root partition

2. Get bootpart from www.winimage.com (http://www.winimage.com)

3. run bootpart.exe (with no arguments) to find the correct partition number for the Linux root.

4. Run bootpart.exe again with the number of the Linux partition, a bootsector file name, and an identifier to be placed in the NT loader menu.

For example, when I run bootpart the first time, I see my root partition is 6.

Then I run bootpart 6 C:\bootsect.lnx Mandrake.

Piece O CAKE!

-SUO