Software >
(on Wikipedia)
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
Untested. Here for reference.
Linux distributions + Debian >
https://launchpad.net/~yannubuntu/+archive/ubuntu/boot-repair
https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/
Automagically repairs a boot loader.
This is something I wish I had/knew about a long time ago. I've had bootloader misadventures that really stressed me out.
I'll accept this, even though it uses systemd.
See also:
(on Wikipedia)
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
A boot loader.
This is one of the "big" boot loaders. I can't fathom it (since it's GNU), so I expect a distribution to be magic with it.
When GRUB breaks, I use boot-repair.
(on Wikipedia)
https://www.joonet.de/lilo/
A boot loader, generally considered less used and less featureful than GRUB.
Although I had used LILO quite a lot in the past, and was doing some interesting things with it, like having multiboots with DOS and rearranging partitions to hide some or change what was primary, I tend to not use a bootloader like that anymore. I expect a distribution to be magical regarding a boot loader.
When LILO breaks, I use boot-repair.
(on Wikipedia)
https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Syslinux_Project [ 1 ] was https://web.archive.org/web/20191231072326/https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Syslinux_Project
A bootloader with various companion tools.
Seems fantastic, but only in the sense that various other tools use it in magical automated ways.
Well, I got schooled with all kinds of bootloader and install issues I was having with Unity Linux 0.99-alpha2.
Boy did I get into trouble. I took three pages of notes before I finally managed to scrap 0.99-alpha2 and get 0.99-alpha1 working again.
It's mostly a problem of my lack of understanding too. I'll need to take another pass at the whole affair after reading some advice I got. I know how I'll do things differently next time.
I hope to get into it later this week, although docs are a higher priority at this point since I've left things on auto-pilot for a while.. i.e. nobody was doing anything.
Software >
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gujin/
This software boots your PC and analyse your filesystems. It displays a graphical menu for you to select which system to boot. Intended to replace LILO and Loadlin, written in C with GCC, fully real mode.
This is a followup to Bootloader hell.
this is just here for reference, it'll be broken into three pages as I test each one.