[syslinux] LVM support

[Ferenc Wagner]

"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com> writes:

> H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
>> Ferenc Wagner wrote:
>>
>>> Hearing the discussion about whether LILO should stay in Debian, I
>>> started to wonder whether adding LVM support to EXTLINUX was
>>> possible.  That's the main selling point of LILO, as far as I know.
>>> And GRUB2 already has a module for parsing LVM metadata:
>>> http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/trunk/grub2/disk/lvm.c?root=grub&view=log
>>>
>>> Couldn't we somehow incorporate it?
>> 
>> Should be doable once the filesystem code has moved to C.
>
> Note: a lot of these things are a matter of developer resources.  There
> is a lot of things that *can* be done if someone cares enough to matter.
>
> Here, though, is a counter-question for you (and it's real):
>
> In *your view*, what is the value proposition of Syslinux over Grub?

RAID support.  And it isn't just me, see for example
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.boot/109116 .

And active development.  And first class support.

And consistency.  I first met Syslinux when I had to netboot some
clusters.  I tried with Grub first, but failed.  PXELINUX came to the
rescue.  Then I worked with bootable CDs: ISOLINUX everywhere.  Then
pendrives: SYSLINUX all around.  MEMDISK is often useful for BIOS
upgrades.  Finally Grub disappointed me several times when used on MD
devices, so I started replacing it with EXTLINUX.  I *love* the
consistency among all these boot media, and the very useful and
growing collection of com32 modules that comes with it.

I've never tried Grub2, though.  Maybe it's nice and modular, but it's
said to progress rather slowly.

You've expressed doubts several times already about the future of the
Syslinux project.  What is it you doubt: only EXTLINUX or something
more?  Do you consider EXTLINUX as a proof of concept only, created
for the completeness' sake, and nothing more?  On the other hand, you
seem to have plans for Syslinux 4, reorganizing the internals, doing
more in C instead of ASM, scripting support, whatnot...

Besides all that, I think choice is good.  LILO and Grub are past,
Grub2 comes along, and it is very useful to have another boot loader,
even if they're almost exactly on par feature wise.  Yes, even if
neither has a killer feature over the other.
-- 
Hope I answered your question.

Regards,
Feri.