Public SourceMage Discussion List

["Eric Sandall" <eric AT sandall.us>]

Wyatt Draggoo said:
>> Does GRUB work on PPC computers?  If so, I propose that we change the
>> default boot loader for the ISOs from LILO to GRUB, that way we can
>> use one boot loader for all of our install ISOs (x86,PPC,
>> soon-to-come-Sparc,etc.).
>
> I thought there was an issue with GRUB not working on some older PCs
> that LILO worked on.  Don't remember the details, but it's normally
> brought up every time someone mentions `GRUB' on the list. :)  If this
> is the case, I'm not quite sure whether I'd rather make a
> mostly-all-in-one GRUB-based multi-platform install ISO with a second
> LILO-based one for those PCs that don't do GRUB, or ISOs for each
> platform using the bootloader that works for that platform.  The
> multi-platform install ISO is something cool to shoot for.  And after
> that, when cauldron installs *everything* through spells, we'll shoot
> for a multi-platform network-based floppy image. :)
>
> Wyatt

One problem I see with having one ISO for all architectures (now that I
think more on it) is that every binary on the CD will have to be
duplicated, once for each architecture.  Right now that wouldn't be bad,
we'd just need them all compiled twice (x86 and PPC), but soon (I hope)
we'll add a third (Sparc), and perhaps later, even more.  This would get
out of hand and, perhaps, make the ISO too big for one CD.

Also, I don't think people with limited bandwidth want to download an
all-in-one ISO when they just want, say, the x86 version of it (why d/l an
extra 100Mb for platforms you don't use?).

So I guess we could stick with LILO (which I like, but am starting to like
GRUB better) for x86 (until Chris and I get the HURD stuff working :),
then we'll need GRUB for that) and GRUB for the others (unless yaboot is
better for PPC than GRUB...)

-One of Four
a.k.a. sandalle

-- 
Eric Sandall                      | Source Mage GNU/Linux Developer
eric AT sandall.us                   | http://www.sourcemage.org
http://www.sandall.us/~sandalle   | SysAdmin @ Inst. Shock Physics @ WSU
http://counter.li.org #196285     | http://www.shock.wsu.edu/