A rant regarding LILO and various other related issues

[Paul Iadonisi]

On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 18:53 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:

[snip]

> As a matter of interest, how did you "fix" the computer remotely
> if it did not boot?
> I would not have thought the serial connection would be alive.

  I'm sure the reference had to do with some grub config error after a
kernel update, or change in kernel options gone wrong, or kernel or
initrd somehow deleted or moved.  Grub can talk to the serial port and
allow interaction through it's shell over the serial port.

> I find the arrogance of the Fedora team in failing to facilitate this minority
> rather disturbing.

  If you are referring primarily to this thread, then it's crystal clear
that the arrogance has been coming from those most vociferously critical
of the decision to remove lilo.  You can have your objections to it, but
I find it quite disturbing that ANYONE could support calling the
developers "morons" and "tards" as somehow justified, despite attempts
by those doing the insulting to engage in not-so-clever sophistry in the
service of that false justification.  Once that starts (and it was
pretty much started from the beginning of the thread) then I'd EXPECT a
little push back (or frankly, silence as they ignore the thread) from
those being insulted.

> I give Fedora many plus marks, but this is definitely a big minus.
> 
> Incidentally, the interactive option in grub, which you praise,
> could be greatly improved;

  Possibly, but keep in mind that this has to fit in a pretty small
amount of memory, if I'm not mistaken.  There's only so much that can be
added due to space constraints.  At least grub HAS a command line.

[snip]

> This hd(0,1) stuff is nonsense, for a start.

  Agreed, but I don't have a good answer, since even the /dev/* stuff
can be ambiguous at times (boot orders do change).

-- 
-Paul Iadonisi
 Senior System Administrator
 Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
 GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets