Great boot laoder for n00bs!

[VeeDubb]

I don't kow about the other n00bs out there, bt I have a consistent record of destroying my MBR when trying to set a up a dual boot. I found an almost fool proof boot loader. it's called GAG. You make a special bootable floppy and it helps you set up your MBR, and if you want you can install your boot loader to the floppy the first time around to see if it works the way you want and then install t to the MBR if you're happy with it.

If you are even remotely paying attention and read at least 1/4th of the directions you CAN'T mess this one up. It worked perfect for me first time. It supports up to 9 opperating systems at a time, which is great. and it has a VERY friendly gui.

It's at http://gag.sourceforge.net

I realize that the experienced Linux user may be above this program, but it is a God-send for folks like me that have a tendancy to fubar their MBR's.

[aay]

Boy I think I'm going to gag! Ok very bad joke. Seriously though this looks cool. Anyone else used this? Any downsides? It certainly looks like an easy boot management tool for HD installs of Knoppix or Morphix.

[VeeDubb]

As I said, people with a lot of experience setting up boot loaders might scoff, or maybe not, but for me, I couldn't find any downside.

[NatMartino]

I'll second the endorsement of the GAG bootloader. I've been using it for about 2 months now with no problems. I'm also a newbie and was quite put off by other bootloaders like XOSL etc. that had extensive installation procedures. GAG is quite simple to setup and like the original poster states you can try it out first on a floppy disk. When I HD-install Knoppix I just answer "No" to installing LILO in the MBR. When I boot the computer, I boot into GAG (I've now installed it in my HD's MBR) first. Having setup GAG (quite easy even for a newbie like me) it displays the different OSes on the different partitions. Press 1 thru 9 for the appropriate/desired OS and GAG will boot into LILO (installed in the partitions' boot sector I assume) which then boots Knoppix on the HD.
- Nat

[VeeDubb]

I noticed that, I don't know why it switches to lilo for loading linux, although the second time I installed it (no problems, just changed my mind about options) it no longer did that, just booted knoppix directly. As I said, there may be more efficient boat loaders, but this has got to be the worlds easiest setup. plus, since you can install it to a floppy, you can essentilaly have a backup of your MBR. If something or someone messes it up, you just toss in the floppy and it's not just a boot disk, but will reinstall a boot loader in 30 seconds.

[rickenbacherus]

When you install Knoppix and select 'NO' on installing LILO to MBR it instead installs to the root directory of that partition. This is essential. I too have destroyed my MBR multiple times but it was the best way to learn I suppose .

Of course you should ALWAYS make a boot floppy for any OS install- if nothing else at least you can still boot your OS.

Since LILO is in the root directory of each of my Linux installs it is simply a matter of adding the pertinent info (partition and label) to my currently in use bootloader (LILO w/ the animated Morphix screen). Using this method you are actually using LILO twice, once to select which partition to boot and the second time from the root directory of that partition. I have seen and used many other boot loaders- GAG certainly does look easy and the floppy idea is brilliant IMHO.

Thanks for the idea VeeDubb

[VeeDubb]

Thanks for the idea VeeDubb

I figured I've leached enough support off this forum in the last week or two I had darn well better share anyhing usefull I find.

[rickenbacherus]

[quote="VeeDubb
I figured I've leached enough support off this forum in the last week or two I had darn well better share anyhing usefull I find.[/quote]

right on

[Yeti]

Sweet, it worked for me thanks. I looked at LILO and Grub and was completely confused. This bootloader let me pop in a floppy and boot between WIN98/WIN2K/Linux

and the cool thing was that before the bootloader I could only boot to 98, Linux and 2k were lost.

Thanx