I've been using LILO for a long time, from my first GNU/Linux
installation. Some people have the idea that it's a dead project, but
it's not, development
is still
active. It never failed to boot for me. Until last night, when it
failed to use an XZ compressed
Linux v2.6.38.2. I would never give up LILO
for Grub, but I was contemplating a switch
to syslinux
after watching
the Fosdem
talk by Dieter Plaetinck last month.
I had no more excuses to delay it any longer, so I switched. All my
machines have /boot as the first partition on the disk, they
are flagged bootable, and use the ext2 file-system. Migrating
to syslinux was simple:
# pacman -Syu syslinuxThe syslinux-install_update options stand for installing it to the MBR, where it replaces LILO. Then I wrote a configuration file: /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg. Actually, I wrote one in advance, because even though you might find it funny, it was a big deal for me to continue using my boot prompt as is. I've been using the LILO fingerprint menu for years. Not being able to port it would be a deal breaker. But it wasn't complex, actually.
# /usr/sbin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
# cp -arp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf.bak
# pacman -Rns lilo
# # /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg # # General settings UI vesamenu.c32 DEFAULT linux PROMPT 0 TIMEOUT 250 # Menu settings MENU WIDTH 28 MENU MARGIN 4 MENU ROWS 3 MENU VSHIFT 16 MENU HSHIFT 11 MENU TIMEOUTROW 13 MENU TABMSGROW 11 MENU CMDLINEROW 11 MENU HELPMSGROW 16 MENU HELPMSGENDROW 29 # Graphical boot menu # # Fingerprint menu # http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fingerprint+Lilo-splash?content=29675 MENU BACKGROUND splash.png # # element ansi f/ground b/ground shadow MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #ffffffff #90000000 std MENU COLOR unsel 37;44 #ff000000 #80000000 std MENU COLOR timeout_msg 37;40 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR timeout 1;37;40 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR border 30;44 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR title 1;36;44 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR help 37;40 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR msg07 37;40 #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR tabmsg 31;40 #00000000 #00000000 none # Boot menu settings LABEL linux MENU LABEL GNU/Linux LINUX ../vmlinuz26 APPEND root=/dev/sda2 ro rootflags=data=ordered i915.modeset=1 video=VGA-1:1152x864 drm_kms_helper.poll=0 INITRD ../kernel26.img LABEL recovery MENU LABEL Recovery LINUX ../vmlinuz26 APPEND root=/dev/sda2 ro rootflags=data=ordered INITRD ../kernel26-fallback.imgYou can find the documentation, and menu options explained on the syslinux wiki. If you achieve an even more faithful copy send me an e-mail with the new values. Thank you.