Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

Choosing and Installing a Boot Manager

Simple boot managers, such at PowerQuest's BootMagic, offer a convenient menu or graphical interface used to boot to different operating systems. Other boot managers, such as LILO and LOADLIN, have more advanced features that may be critical to a successful boot and may be a necessary ingredient in your boot strategy. If your computer's hardware requires pre-boot configuration, or if the Linux kernel needs to know critical information about your computer's hardware before, during, or after the boot process, you may need to use one of these bootloaders' special features in order to boot Linux.

For example, the LOADLIN command is used from the DOS command prompt to load the Linux kernel. LOADLIN, like LILO, supports the passing of video, networking, and disk geometry settings, known as kernel arguments, usually via a command line or boot parameter. Some arguments need to be passed before Linux boots, while other arguments, such as memory settings, may be placed in a configuration file. LOADLIN, like LILO, supports separate kernel arguments in the boot parameter or in a separate configuration file.

LOADLIN can be especially helpful if you need to boot directly to Linux with your computer's hardware left in a specific state (usually to aid in recognition, configuration, or use). LOADLIN may also be used in the Windows operating system config.sys script to provide a boot menu, or as a desktop shortcut to a direct boot to Linux. LOADLIN can be helpful if a particular subsystem of your computer's hardware, such as IBM MWave adapter, requires DOS initialization before it can be used as a sound card for Linux.

The good news is that as Linux has matured, there is now better hardware support during or after the boot process. However, there may be situations where only a bootloader like LOADLIN will work!

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