From owner-freebsd-questions  Tue Jan  2 11:45:54 1996
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id LAA06123
          for questions-outgoing; Tue, 2 Jan 1996 11:45:54 -0800 (PST)
Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA06113
          Tue, 2 Jan 1996 11:45:49 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.6.9/8.6.9) id GAA29677; Wed, 3 Jan 1996 06:41:46 +1100
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 06:41:46 +1100
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199601021941.GAA29677@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: bora@wireless.stanford.edu, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au
Subject: Re: Boot Loader when both IDE and SCSI present. How to Install? V.2
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org, questions@FreeBSD.org
Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>> > Not a big problem, but in my opinion, LINUX booting process is ten times 
>> > better.
>> 
>> Care to tell us about how it works?  We're always happy to improve...
>OK,
>Here is how the Linux boot loader works (I did not write so I am giving you
>only a functional description, you can check out the details at www.linux.org
>under Howto section under LILO.

>Linux uses a boot loader called LILO. LILO may use the MBR. It uses a file
>callled /etc/lilo.conf. In this file you specify which image to boot from
>where and it also uses a map of the disk drives. You run lilo, it installs

LILO is actually an optional boot loader (sort of like booteasy except it
handles kernel images too) that is used by many distributions because the
loader built into the kernel images is so much _worse_ than FreeBSD's
native boot loader.  With LILO, you can specify the Linux root device
using an arg string (e.g., "root=/dev/hda1") (good) but changing the
kernel requires running a utility to set up a map of the blocks used in
the kernel (bad).

Bruce