Public SourceMage Discussion List

[seth AT swoolley.homeip.net]

On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 11:06:25AM -0600, Bearcat M. Sandor wrote:
> > Really, I like grub much better than lilo, but for compile from source
> > lilo is the x86-64's only option currently supported. I've been
> > meaning to create a grub-bin spell for x86-64 guys to install.
> > Created statically so there aren't any dependencies on glibc of any
> > bit type. (for that matter I've also been wanting to mess with grub2
> > but haven't gotten the chance).
> >
> > Thanks,
> > - David Brown
> I always thought grub was more common and loved then lilo. If this is the
> case why is there so little interest in a grub for x86-64?  I would think
> that if there was interest it would have been done by now.
> 
> Any ideas about why it hasn't been done?

You don't need 64-bits for a bootloader.

lilos is also 32-bit only too, but the only reason it builds is because it
requires a cross-platform (as in cross-compiling to) 32-bit assembler.

The lilo loader itself is not written in C.

We could install a cross-compiling gcc that runs on x86-64 with an x86-32
target and be able to build grub without issue.