SDB:Replacing the Boot Loader GRUB with LILO in SuSE 8.1
Version: 8.1
Situation
When installing SuSE Linux 8.1 from scratch, GRUB is installed as the the boot loader by default. For exceptions to this rule and additional information, refer to SDB:The Boot Loader Concept in SuSE Linux 8.1
Procedure
Although GRUB is the default boot loader, you can switch to LILO if you want. Nevertheless, this is only advisable if you have a very good knowledge of the Linux system and the configuration of the boot manager LILO.
Changing the boot manager and any possible boot problems resulting from this change exceed the scope of our free-of-charge installation support. The Advanced Support Service is available. For more information, refer to http://www.suse.de/en/private/support/inst_support/advanced.html
If you have chosen the standard software selection, the LILO software package has already been installed and the only necessary step is to customize YaST2's boot loader configuration dialog for LILO, unless you want to create /etc/lilo.conf manually. Proceed as follows:
First, close all opened YaST2 dialogs. Due to a bug in YaST2, the variable for the INITRD modules in the file /etc/sysconfig/kernel will be overwritten. For this reason, create a backup of this file so you can restore it afterwards:
cp /etc/sysconfig/kernel /tmp
Then edit the file /etc/sysconfig/bootloader and change the variable "LOADER_TYPE" to:
LOADER_TYPE="lilo"
This change enables you to configure LILO using YaST2's boot loader configuration dialog. To start this dialog, launch the YaST2 Control Center. The dialog "Boot Loader Configuration" can be found under the entry "System".
Select the item Restore original configuration and press Finish. LILO's configuration file (/etc/lilo.conf) will be created and the boot loader LILO will be installed. During this process, the boot manager GRUB will be overwritten.
Due to the above-mentioned bug in YaST2, the variable for the INITRD modules will be reset and INITRD must be generated again. Copy back the previously backed up files:
cp /tmp/kernel /etc/sysconfig/
and execute the commands
mk_initrd lilo
By doing this, INITRD is recreated again and all the necessary modules are integrated.
Attention: When subsequently creating LILO's configuration file by way of YaST, only the Linux partitions are entered in the boot menu. Any other available operating systems must be added manually or via YaST2's boot loader configuration dialog (menu item Change current configuration).
To switch back to GRUB in YaST2's boot loader configuration dialog, simply change the variable "LOADER_TYPE" in the file /etc/sysconfig/bootloader to:
LOADER_TYPE="grub"
<keyword>lilo,grub,8.1,boot,bootmanager,bootloader</keyword>