Loadlin vs LILO

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Loadlin vs LILO
started by: PDG1

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,15:38

OKay... So I finally got my old computer to boot DSL but I'm thinking that I want to keep my Windows 98 on it

I've been reading a lot about this loadlin method to creating a dual boot environment but a couple of my questions aren't being answered by the stuff I'm reading

question 1
Linux can be installed to a FAT32 filesystem? I always thought that linux needed that other filesystem that I can't remember the name of right now...
but yea... I always thought that FAT filesystems were a no go with linux because of Microshaft

question number 2... why would I go with loadlin instead of LILO?
on the DSL wiki main page there's only info on how to boot a compressed image frm HD using loadlin
is there a reason there's only info on Loadlin and not LILO?

I'm also having a bugger of a time finding Loadlin...

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 20 2007,15:54

1
Well in DSL's case, it will create a ramdisk of type ext2, with the mounted data from your fat32 fs.

2
There's entries on LILO, although it's much simpler as all you have to do is run the frugal_lilo.sh script (or click on the menu)

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,16:10

so the only benefit is that it's easier?
I'm a newb @ linux and this is my first DSL install so I really have no clue where I'm going with this... I figure i aught to start somewhere tho
I mean... I've done some stuff @ school with Mandrake linux installs and stuff
got samba share between linux and 98 computers... I even got webmail to work

but other than that... nothing

I'm not entirely sure what "ramdisk of type ext2" means
I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean it's loading directly into RAM because I don't think I have enough RAM for that to happen.
does it mean that it's making a tiny little temp partition of ext2 on the HD?
lol
I'm sorry I really have no clue

Posted by curaga on April 20 2007,16:24

No, everything isn't loaded into ram, only some parts. Most of the system will still be in the KNOPPIX readonly file.

I wouldn't go with loadlin, it would need you booting dos before getting to linux which would slow boot down and also maybe cause conflicts...

You can find loadlin in DSL mirrors, in a floppy image named utils (something) .img

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 20 2007,16:47

I suppose you'd want to look up the term "mount".

I can see why he would want to use loadlin, if he does not want to repartition his disk drive, or always boot from a livecd/usb.

The main advantage of _not_ using loadlin is that it's a direct native linux boot, as curaga pointed out.

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,16:59

okay... I'm kind of a coward right now
so I'm going to take the easy way out and go with loadlin

Thanks for the help

I'll let you know how it all turns out

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,17:53

you know what...
I have no clue what happened to my machine... but it's not really wanting to boot properly from CD either
It's giving me some weird errors about ramdisk and modprobe
like...
can't find ramdisk in etc/fstab or etc/mtab or something like that
and IO error 104
0requests
0known processed
and 0 events remaining
whic looks pretty complex to me
I think there's a compatability issue going on here...I'm going to take another look

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,18:25

I guess I'm back to square one
If anyone has some advice for me, it'd be greatly appreciated

meanwhile I'm going back to the forums to see what else i can dig up

and just incase it's really important

system info :
Cyrix 6x86MX (200Mhz)
16 MB Ram
4 Gb HDD

whoa, I always thought i just had a pentium... but I guess I don't... maybe that's what's giving it problems

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 20 2007,19:22

cyrix cpu's should be compatible.

I'm guessing it's due to your low memory.
Try booting with "lowram" or the superlowram sequence described on the wiki cheatcode page.
If that doesn't help, try adding mem=16M as well.
Also, do you have some device that shares the memory (ie for video)?

Posted by PDG1 on April 20 2007,22:55

well I'm not sure about the sharing memory thing
but I do know that nothing you suggested so far has worked:P
it keeps giving me the same error about not being able to mount the ramdisk and stuff like that
I'm not really sure what mounting is... I've got a tiny bit of an idea because with Daemon tools I always have to mount CD images and stuff so I'm assuming this is the same except with devices and filesystems instead

oh yea... it's giving me some kind of fs error aswell
but I think I should search through a different part of a forum and maybe post isses like this in a different place because the subject is loadlin vs LILO
not
HELP!!!!111
or I'M A NEWB!!!111
lol