lilo.conf
DESCRIPTION
This file, by default /etc/lilo.conf, is read by the boot
loader installer 'lilo' (see lilo(8)).
It might look as follows:
# lilo.conf
#
# global options:
boot=/dev/hda
prompt
timeout=150
lba32
compact
vga=normal
root=/dev/hda1
read-only
menu-title=" John's Computer "
#
# bootable kernel images:
image=/boot/zImage-1.5.99
label=try
image=/boot/zImage-1.0.9
label=1.0.9
image=/tamu/vmlinuz
label=tamu
root=/dev/hdb2
vga=ask
#
# other operating systems:
other=/dev/hda3
label=dos
other=/dev/hdb5
label=os2
loader=/boot/os2_d.b
table=E:
This configuration file specifies that lilo uses the Mas
ter Boot Record on /dev/hda. (For a discussion of the var
ious ways to use lilo, and the interaction with other
operating systems, see user.tex from the lilo documenta
tion.)
When booting, the boot loader will issue its boot: prompt
and wait for you to enter the label of the kernel (and any
options) which you wish to boot. At any time you may hit
[Tab] to see a list of kernel/other labels. Alternately,
if the boot-menu.b boot loader is installed, a menu of
boot options will be presented for your selection. The
title of this menu is overridden with the menu title spec
ification in this configuration file. If you enter noth
ing, then the default kernel image, the first mentioned,
GLOBAL OPTIONS
There are many possible keywords. The description below is
almost literally from user.tex (just slightly abbrevi
ated).
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.
bitmap=<bitmap-file>
Specifies use of a 640x480x16 bitmap file as the
background on which a boot menu is displayed. May
not be used if 'message=' is specified. Requires
that 'install=' specify a boot-loader which is
capable of displaying the bitmap; i.e., boot-bmp.b.
(Version 22.3): Use of this option now implies use
of a bitmap-capable boot loader, unless overridden
with "install=" (see below).
bmp-colors=<fg>,<bg>,<sh>,<hfg>,<hbg>,<hsh>
Specifies the decimal values of the colors to be
used for the menu display on a 'bitmap=' back
ground. The list consists of 6 entries, 3 for nor
mal text followed by 3 for highlighted text. The
order of each triple is: foreground color, back
ground color, shadow color. If background color is
not specified, "transparent" is assumed. If shadow
color is not specified, then "none" is assumed.
The list entries are separated by commas, with no
spaces.
bmp-table=<x>,<y>,<ncol>,<nrow>,<xsep>,<spill>
Specifies the location and layout of the menu
table. <x>,<y> specify the starting x- and y-posi
tion of the upper left corner of the table in char
acter coordinates: x in [1..80], y in [1..30].
<ncol> is the number of columns in the menu (1..5);
and <nrow> is the number of rows (entries) in each
column. If more than one column is specified, then
<xsep> is the number of character columns between
the leftmost characters in each column: (18..40),
and <spill> is the number of entries in one column
which must be filled before entries spill into the
next column. <spill> must be .le. <nrow>. If pixel
addressing is used, instead of character address
ing, then any of <x>, <y>, or <xsep> may be speci
fied with a 'p' suffix on the decimal value.
bmp-timer=<x>,<y>,<fg>,<bg>,<sh>
Optional specification of the 'timeout=' countdown
timer. <x>,<y> specifies the character (or pixel)
mounted as root. A raid installation is initiated
by specifying a RAID1 device as the boot device;
e.g., "boot=/dev/md0". Note that LILO version 22.0
and later operate differently from earlier versions
with respect to the actual location of the boot
records.
change-rules
Defines boot-time changes to partition type numbers
(`hiding').
change-rules
reset
type=DOS12
normal=1
hidden=0x11
type=DOS16_small
normal=4
hidden=0x14
type=DOS16_big
normal=0x06
hidden=0x16
The above excerpt from a configuration file speci
fies that all default change-rules are removed
("reset"), and the change-rules for three partition
types are specified. Without the reset, the three
types specified would have been added to the exist
ing default change-rules. Normally, the default
rules are sufficient. The strings which define the
partition types are used in a change section (see
below), with the suffixes "_normal" or "_hidden"
appended. See section "Partition type change
rules" of user.tex for more 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 automatically booting a
locked command line, a command line pre-stored by
"lilo -R", or the default `image=' or `other='.
details. Especially useful is the `bios=' parame
ter. 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 `disk
tab' is omitted. The use of disktabs is discour
aged.
fix-table
This allows lilo to adjust 3D addresses in parti
tion tables. Each partition entry contains a 3D
(cylinder/head/sector) 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 operat
ing 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 transla
tion 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.
Starting with version 21.5, two boot loaders are
available: boot-text.b and boot-menu.b, with boot.b
a symbolic link to the latter. Both boot loaders
allow the entry of kernel command line options in
exactly the same fashion. Both also have full
serial line support (see serial= below), although
no menu capabilities are available on the serial
terminal. The former is available for strict com
patibility with previous versions of LILO. If
`install' is omitted, /boot/boot.b is used as the
default.
Beginning with version 22, a third user-interface,
boot-bmp.b, is available. This presents a GUI
interface, the background for which is selected
with "bitmap=".
(Version 22.3): The selection of the user interface
with "install=" is dependent upon the presence of
the substrings "text", "menu", or "bmp" in the
parameter to the "install=". The boot loaders
selected are no longer files, but are contained
within the boot-installer binary /sbin/lilo. If
"install=" is omitted, the default boot loader is
"menu", unless "bitmap=" is specified (see above),
in which case the boot loader "bmp" will be
selected.
large-memory
(Version 22.3): Normally any initial ramdisk (ini
trd) loaded with a kernel is loaded as high in mem
ory as possible, but never above 15Mb. This is due
to a BIOS limitation on older systems. On newer
systems, this option enables using memory above
15Mb (up to a kernel imposed limit, around 768Mb)
for passing the initrd to the kernel. The presence
of this option merely indicates that your system
does not have the old BIOS limitation.
This switch (or its abscence) is not passed to the
kernel, and does not in any way affect the amount
of physical memory which it will use. (See the
kernel documentation for the kernel command line
parameter "mem=" for limiting the memory used by
the kernel.)
lba32 Generate 32-bit Logical Block Addresses instead of
cylinder/head/sector addresses. If the BIOS sup
ports packet addressing, then packet calls will be
used to access the disk. This allows booting from
any partition on disks with more than 1024 cylin
ders. If the BIOS does not support packet address
its use of packet addressing, but requires a recent
BIOS (post-1998).
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 over
ridden.
mandatory
The per-image password option `mandatory' (see
below) applies to all images.
map=<map-file>
Specifies the location of the map file. If `map' is
omitted, the file /boot/map is used.
On machines with a pre-1998 BIOS, the EDD bios
extensions which are required to support "lba32"
disk sector addressing may not be present. In this
case, the boot-loader will fall back automatically
to "geometric" addressing; this fall back situa
tion, or the specific use of "geometric" or "lin
ear" addressing, will require the map file to be
located within the first 1024 cylinders of the disk
drive. This BIOS limitation is not present on
post-1998 systems, most of which support the newer
EDD disk BIOS calls.
menu-title=<title-string>
Specifies the title line (up to 37 characters) for
the boot menu. This title replaces the default
"LILO Boot Menu" title string. If boot-menu.b is
not installed as the boot loader (see install=
option), then this line has no effect.
menu-scheme=<color-scheme>
The default color scheme of the boot menu may be
overridden on VGA displays using this option. (The
color scheme of MDA displays is fixed.) The gen
eral color-scheme string is of the form:
<text>:<highlight>:<border>:<title>
where each entry is two characters which specify a
foreground color and a background color. Only the
first entry is required. The default highlight is
the reverse of the text color; and the default bor
der and title colors are the text color. Colors
are specified using the characters kbgcrmyw, for
blacK, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, and
White: upper case for intense (fg only), lower case
for dim. Legal color-scheme strings would be
sirable when the boot-menu.b boot loader is
installed. 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. 'message='
and 'bitmap=' are mutually exclusive.
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. This option may prevent
unattended booting, if the default image is `pass
word=' protected at the default level `mandatory',
which is a level higher than `restricted'.
prompt Automatic booting (see `delay' above) will not take
place unless a locked or pre-stored ("lilo -R")
command line is present. Instead, the boot loader
will issue the boot: prompt and wait for user input
before proceeding (see timeout below). Unattended
default image reboots are impossible if `prompt' is
set and `timeout' is not, or the default image is
password protected at a higher level than
`restricted'.
raid-extra-boot=<option>
This option only has meaning for RAID1 installa
tions. The <option> may be specified as none,
auto, mbr-only, or a comma-separated list of
devices; e.g., "/dev/hda,/dev/hdc6". Starting with
LILO version 22.0, the boot record is normally
written to the first sector of the RAID1 device.
On PARALLEL raid sets, no other boot records are
needed. The default action is auto, meaning, auto
matically generate auxilary boot records as needed
on SKEWED raid sets. none means suppress genera
tion of all auxiliary boot records. mbr-only sup
presses generation of boot records on the raid
device, and forces compatibility with versions of
LILO earlier than version 22.0 by writing boot
records to all Master Boot Records (MBRs) of all
disks in the raid set. Use of an explicit list of
devices, forces writing of auxiliary boot records
only on those devices enumerated, in addition to
the boot record on the RAID1 device. Since the ver
sion 22 RAID1 codes will never automatically write
a boot record on the MBR of device 0x80, if such a
boot record is desired, this is the way to have it
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 fol
lowing baud rates are supported: 110, 150, 300,
600, 1200, 2400(default), 4800, 9600, plus the
extended rates 19200, 38400, and 57600(56000).
115200 is allowed, but may not work with all COMx
port hardware.
<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 par
ity, "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 auto
matically raised to 20.
Example: "serial=0,2400n8" initializes COM1 with
the default parameters.
single-key
This option specifies that boot images or 'other's
are to be selected and launched with a single
keystroke. Selection is based upon the first char
acter of each name, which must be unique. This
option should not be used with the menu or bitmap
user interface ("install=").
suppress-boot-time-BIOS-data
This global option suppresses the boot-time real
mode collection of BIOS data on systems which hang
on certain BIOS calls. It is equivalent to using
the boot-time switch 'nobd'.
This option defeats the disk volume recognition and
BIOS device code detection features of LILO on sys
tems with more than one disk. Thus the use of this
option will produce a strong cautionary message,
which cannot be suppressed.
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=<device>
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 sec
tors to be mapped using
range=<start>-<end>
range=<start>+<nsec>
range=<sector>
In the third case, 'nsec=1' is assumed.
KERNEL OPTIONS (image=)
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. Multiple kernel parameters are separated
by a blank space, and the string must be enclosed
in double quotes. Append may be used only once per
"image=" section. Example:
append="mem=96M hd=576,64,32 console=ttyS1,9600"
initrd=<name>
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. It may be specified as a global
option. 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. It may be specified as a
global option.
root=<root-device>
This specifies the device that should be mounted as
root. It may be specified as a global option. 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. It may be specified as a
global option. 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.)
or HPFS. The alternate chain loader, /boot/os2_d.b
passes partition and drive information uncondition
ally, and uses a format suitalble for OS/2 and DOS
(see table=<letter> below).
table=<device>
This specifies the device that contains the parti
tion table. The boot loader will pass default par
tition information to the booted operating system
if this variable is omitted. (Some operating sys
tems have other means to determine from which par
tition 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.
table=<drive-letter>
This is a special case for the os2_d.b chain
loader. It specifies the DOS drive letter for the
partition that will be booted. This is mandatory
when booting OS/2 installed on an extended parti
tion. The drive letter may be specified with or
without a trailing colon.
change This keyword starts a section which describes how
primary partition IDs are changed, and how primary
partitions are activated and deactivated. If
change is omitted, change rules are generated as
though the automatic keyword were specified. The
keyword change alone, without any rules following,
will suppress automatic change-rules. For example,
other=/dev/hda2
label=dos
table=/dev/hda
change
automatic
partition=/dev/hda1
set=DOS12_hidden
deactivate
partition=/dev/hda2
set=DOS16_big_normal
activate
specifies that when primary partition /dev/hda2 is
booted, automatic change-rules will be in effect;
plus, partition 1, a DOS12 partition, will be set
hidden, and deactivated. In addition, partition 2,
will be set normal, and activated. Activation sets
the boot-flag in the partition table. The auto
matic keyword may confict with default change
unsafe Do not access the boot sector at map creation time.
This disables some sanity checks, including a par
tition 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. If the boot
sector is on a hard drive, the BIOS device code of
the drive will have to be specified explicitly with
"disk=/dev/XXXX bios=0x8X inaccessible" in the con
figuration file. `unsafe' and `table' (explicit or
implicit) are mutually incompatible.
COMMON OPTIONS (image= & other=)
In both the image= and other= 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 set
ting the variable `label'.
alias=<name>
A second name for the same entry can be used by
specifying an alias.
lock (See above.)
optional
Omit the image if it is not available at map cre
ation time. It may be specified as a global
option. This is useful to specify test kernels
that are not always present.
password=<password>
Protect the `image=' or `other=' with a password
(or passphrase). It may be specified as a global
option. The interpretation of the `password=' set
ting is modified by the words `mandatory',
`restricted', and `bypass' (see below).
The password may be specified in the config-file
(less secure) or entered at the time the boot
loader is installed. To request interactive entry
of the password, it should be specified: pass
word="". Passwords entered interactively are not
required to be entered again if the boot installer
is re-run. They are cached, in hashed form, in a
companion file to the config-file, default name:
/etc/lilo.conf.crc. If the config-file is updated,
a warning message will be issued telling you to re-
run lilo -p to force re-creation of the password
indicate that the global password does not apply to
this `image=' or `other='.
SEE ALSO
lilo(8), mkinitrd(8), mkrescue(8), rdev(8).
The lilo distribution comes with very extensive documenta
tion of which the above is an extract. (lilo 22.3)
10 Oct 2002 LILO.CONF(5)
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