Syslinux vs Lilo

[Kerry Hoath]

syslinux is designed to load linux from dos boot disks;
or from a pxe bootrom or a cd.
It is not designed for hard disk installation. They use syslinux on the
initial boot disk so you can copy a new kernel onto the disk under
windows or dos; and reboot and have the new kernel used
with no regeneration of the map file.
Lilo remembers where your kernel is on disk so you need to rerun
the map installer when any of this changes.
Grub is smarter and can read filesystems given the correct stage 1.5 loader;
it can also decompress gzip files and the like but is still under development.
Redhat uses it as the default boot loader now; and
many have had success with it.

Most people still use lilo under Debian and that is what i recommend for
hard disk booting. syslinux is nice to make a quick and dirty
boot disk that can load a linux kernel and take command line
arguments.

On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 09:12:53PM -0700, Steve Holmes wrote:
> I faintly recall some discussion on this subject before on this list
> but I can't remember the outcome of it.  What are the pros and cons of
> using syslinux instead of lilo? I've used lilo for years without any
> real problems.  I'm looking into Debian and I notice the boot disks
> have syslinux on them but the write ups for Debian imply that lilo is
> the official boot loader so I'm a tad confused at the moment:).
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
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-- 
Kerry Hoath:  kerry at gotss.net kerry at gotss.eu.org or  kerry at gotss.spice.net.au
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