LILO.CONF (5)
configuration file for lilo
DESCRIPTION
This file, by default
/etc/lilo.conf ,
is read by the boot loader installer lilo (see lilo(8)).
It might look as follows:
boot = /dev/hda
delay = 40
compact
vga = normal
root = /dev/hda1
read-only
image = /zImage-2.5.99
label = try
image = /zImage-1.0.9
label = 1.0.9
image = /tamu/vmlinuz
label = tamu
root = /dev/hdb2
vga = ask
other = /dev/hda3
label = dos
table = /dev/hda
This configuration file specifies that lilo uses the Master
Boot Record on /dev/hda. (For a discussion of the various ways
to use lilo, and the interaction with other operating systems,
see user.tex from the lilo documentation.)
When booting, the boot loader will wait four seconds (40 deciseconds)
for you to press Shift.
If you don't, then the first kernel image mentioned (/zImage-1.5.99,
that you probably installed just five minutes ago) will be booted.
If you do, the boot loader will ask you which image to boot.
In case you forgot the possible choices, press [TAB] (or [?], if
you have a US keyboard), and you will be presented with a menu.
You now have the choice of booting this brandnew kernel,
or an old trusted kernel, or a kernel on another root file system
(just in case you did something stupid on your usual rootfs),
or booting a different operating system.
There can be up to 16 images mentioned in lilo.conf.
As can be seen above, a configuration file starts with a number
of global options (the top 6 lines in the example),
followed by descriptions of the options for the various images.
An option in an image description will override a global option.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
There are many possible keywords. The description below is
almost literally from user.tex (just slightly abbreviated).
backup= backup-file
Copy the original boot sector to
backup-file
(which may also be a device, e.g.
/dev/null )
instead of
/boot/boot.NNNN .
boot= boot-device
Sets the name of the device (e.g. a hard disk partition) that contains
the boot sector. If this keyword is omitted, the boot sector is read
from (and possibly written to) the device that is currently mounted as root.
change-rules
Defines boot-time changes to partition type numbers (`hiding').
See section "Partition type change rules" of user.tex for details.
compact
Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the map
smaller. Using `compact' is especially recommended when booting from a
floppy disk.
default= name
Uses the specified image as the default boot image. If `default' is omitted,
the image appearing first in the configuration file is used.
delay= tsecs
Specifies the number of tenths of a second the boot loader should
wait before booting the first image. This is useful on systems that
immediately boot from the hard disk after enabling the keyboard.
The boot loader doesn't wait if `delay' is omitted or is set to zero.
disk= device-name
Defines non-standard parameters for the specified disk.
See section "Disk geometry" of user.tex for details.
Especially useful is the `bios=' parameter.
The BIOS numbers your disks 0x80, 0x81, etc. and it is impossible
to decide which Linux disk corresponds to which BIOS disk
(since this depends on the BIOS setup, and on the type of BIOS),
so if you have an unusual setup you need to state the correspondence
between Linux disks and BIOS disks.
For example,
disk=/dev/sda
bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hda
bios=0x81
would say that your SCSI disk is the first BIOS disk,
and your (primary master) IDE disk is the second BIOS disk.
disktab= disktab-file
Specifies the name of the disk parameter table.
The map installer looks for
/etc/disktab
if `disktab' is omitted. The use of disktabs is discouraged.
fix-table
This allows lilo to adjust 3D addresses in partition tables. Each
partition entry contains a 3D (sector/head/cylinder) and a linear
address of the first and the last sector of the partition. If a
partition is not track-aligned and if certain other operating systems
(e.g. PC/MS-DOS or OS/2) are using the same disk, they may change the
3D address. lilo can store its boot sector only on partitions where
both address types correspond. lilo re-adjusts incorrect 3D start
addresses if `fix-table' is set.
WARNING: This does not guarantee that other operating systems may
not attempt to reset the address later. It is also possible that this
change has other, unexpected side-effects. The correct fix is to
re-partition the drive with a program that does align partitions to
tracks. Also, with some disks (e.g. some large EIDE disks with address
translation enabled), under some circumstances, it may even be
unavoidable to have conflicting partition table entries.
force-backup= backup-file
Like `backup', but overwrite an old backup copy if it exists.
ignore-table
tells lilo to ignore corrupt partition tables.
install= boot-sector
Install the specified file as the new boot sector.
If `install' is omitted,
/boot/boot.b
is used as the default.
linear
Generate linear sector addresses instead of sector/head/cylinder
addresses. Linear addresses are translated at run time and do not
depend on disk geometry. Note that boot disks may not be portable
if `linear' is used, because the BIOS service to determine the disk geometry
does not work reliably for floppy disks. When using `linear' with large
disks,
/sbin/lilo
may generate references to inaccessible disk areas,
because 3D sector addresses are not known before boot time.
lock
Enables automatic recording of boot command lines as the defaults
for the following boots. This way, lilo "locks" on a choice until it is
manually overridden.
map= map-file
Specifies the location of the map file. If `map' is omitted, the file
/boot/map
is used.
message= message-file
specifies a file containing a message that is displayed before
the boot prompt. No message is displayed while waiting
for a shifting key after printing "LILO ". In the message, the FF
character ([Ctrl L]) clears the local screen. The size of the message
file is limited to 65535 bytes. The map file has to be rebuilt if the
message file is changed or moved.
nowarn
Disables warnings about possible future dangers.
optional
The per-image option `optional' (see below) applies to all images.
password= password
The per-image option `password=...' (see below) applies to all images.
prompt
forces entering the boot prompt without expecting any prior
key-presses. Unattended reboots are impossible if `prompt' is set
and `timeout' isn't.
restricted
The per-image option `restricted' (see below) applies to all images.
serial= parameters
enables control from a serial line. The specified serial port is
initialized and the boot loader is accepting input from it and from
the PC's keyboard. Sending a break on the serial line corresponds to
pressing a shift key on the console in order to get the boot loader's
attention.
All boot images should be password-protected if the serial access is
less secure than access to the console, e.g. if the line is connected
to a modem. The parameter string has the following syntax:
<port>[,<bps>[<parity>[<bits>]]]
<port>: the number of the serial port, zero-based. 0 corresponds to
COM1 alias /dev/ttyS0, etc. All four ports can be used (if present).
<bps>: the baud rate of the serial port. The following baud rates are
supported: 110, 150, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800 and 9600 bps.
Default is 2400 bps.
<parity>: the parity used on the serial line. The boot loader ignores input
parity and strips the 8th bit. The following (upper or lower case)
characters are used to describe the parity: n for no parity, e
for even parity and o for odd parity.
<bits>: the number of bits in a character. Only 7 and 8 bits are
supported. Default is 8 if parity is "none", 7 if parity is "even"
or "odd".
If `serial' is set, the value of `delay' is automatically raised to 20.
Example: serial=0,2400n8 initializes COM1 with the default parameters.
timeout= tsecs
sets a timeout (in tenths of a second) for keyboard
input. If no key is pressed for the specified time, the first image is
automatically booted. Similarly, password input is aborted if the user
is idle for too long. The default timeout is infinite.
verbose= level
Turns on lots of progress reporting. Higher numbers give more verbose
output. If -v is additionally specified on the lilo command line,
the level is increased accordingly. The maximum verbosity level is 5.
Additionally, the kernel configuration parameters
append , ramdisk , read-only , read-write , root
and
vga
can be set in the global options section. They are used as defaults
if they aren't specified in the configuration sections of the
respective kernel images.
PER-IMAGE SECTION
A per-image section starts with either a line
image=pathname
(to indicate a file or device containing the boot image of a Linux
kernel), or a line
other=pathname
to indicate an arbitrary system to boot.
In the former case, if an image line specifies booting
from a device, then one has to indicate the range of sectors to be mapped
using
range= start-end
In the latter case (booting another system) there are the three options
loader= chain-loader
This specifies the chain loader that should be used.
By default
/boot/chain.b
is used. The chain loader must be specified if booting from a device
other than the first hard or floppy disk.
table= device
This specifies the device that contains the partition table.
The boot loader will not pass partition information to the booted
operating system if this variable is omitted. (Some operating systems
have other means to determine from which partition they have been booted.
E.g., MS-DOS usually stores the geometry of the boot disk or partition
in its boot sector.)
Note that /sbin/lilo must be re-run if a partition table mapped referenced
with `table' is modified.
unsafe
Do not access the boot sector at map creation time. This disables
some sanity checks, including a partition table check. If the boot
sector is on a fixed-format floppy disk device, using UNSAFE avoids the
need to put a readable disk into the drive when running the map
installer. `unsafe' and `table' are mutually incompatible.
In both cases the following options apply.
label= name
The boot loader uses the main file name (without its path)
of each image specification to identify that image.
A different name can be used by setting the variable `label'.
alias= name
A second name for the same entry can be used by specifying an alias.
lock
optional
Omit the image if it is not available at map creation time.
This is useful to specify test kernels that are not always present.
password= password
Protect the image by a password.
restricted
A password is only required to boot the image if parameters
are specified on the command line (e.g. single).
KERNEL OPTIONS
If the booted image is a Linux kernel, then one may pass
command line parameters to this kernel.
append= string
Appends the options specified to the parameter line passed to the kernel.
This is typically used to specify parameters of hardware that can't be
entirely auto-detected or for which probing may be dangerous. Example:
append = "hd=64,32,202"
literal= string
Like `append', but removes all other options (e.g. setting of the root
device). Because vital options can be removed unintentionally with `literal',
this option cannot be set in the global options section.
ramdisk= size
This specifies the size of the optional RAM disk. A value of
zero indicates that no RAM disk should be created. If this variable is
omitted, the RAM disk size configured into the boot image is used.
read-only
This specifies that the root file system should be mounted read-only.
Typically, the system startup procedure re-mounts the root
file system read-write later (e.g. after fsck'ing it).
read-write
This specifies that the root file system should be mounted read-write.
root= root-device
This specifies the device that should be mounted as root.
If the special name
current
is used, the root device is set to the device on which the root file
system is currently mounted. If the root has been changed with -r ,
the respective device is used. If the variable `root' is omitted,
the root device setting contained in the kernel image is used.
(And that is set at compile time using the ROOT_DEV variable in
the kernel Makefile, and can later be changed with the rdev(8) program.)
vga= mode
This specifies the VGA text mode that should be selected when
booting. The following values are recognized (case is ignored):
normal :
select normal 80x25 text mode.
extended (or ext ):
select 80x50 text mode.
ask :
stop and ask for user input (at boot time).
<number>: use the corresponding text mode. A list of available modes
can be obtained by booting with vga=ask and pressing [Enter].
If this variable is omitted, the VGA mode setting contained in the
kernel image is used. (And that is set at compile time using the
SVGA_MODE variable in the kernel Makefile, and can later be changed with
the rdev(8) program.)
SEE ALSO
- lilo (8) -
- rdev (8) -
The lilo distribution comes with very extensive documentation of which the above is an extract
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