Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.setup
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 02:32:42 GMT

> I'm wondering if there are simple 'local' boot loader out there for
> linux, which reside only in the 1st sector of linux, and care only
> about booting current linux. The reasons being:
>
> 1st, I don't wan't to put my linux boot loader in MBR -- too
> dangerous there. So many tools want to take possession of it. Some
> monopoly just possesses it without any choices...
>
> 2nd, The problem with lilo is that it keeps too many irrelevant
> information, like which HD it is on, which partition it is on, etc,
> whenever these info is changed, lilo refuses to boot. I unfortunately
> changes those quite a lot and lilo failed on me all the time.
>
> 3rd, I don't want to use grub. Too complicated for a simple job.
>
> All I want is a simple, local boot loader, just like the MS DOS
> boot -- count everything from its logical address, not worrying
> about anything that is outside the current partition. So it will
> work regardless which HD it is on, or which partition it is on, or
> even works after I moved my Linux partition to somewhere else, just
> like what partition magic does to DOS partitions.

FYI, I found the solution. The answer comes from (ironically) DOS. In short, use loadlin in W95/98, or native Windows Boot Loader under W2k.

All above problem will disappear, with a simple and neat solution, unfortunately under DOS.