1 LILO - Generic Boot Loader for Linux ("LInux LOader") by Werner Almesberger
2 ===========================================================================
4 NOTE: This document is no longer maintained. However, it is
5 still current. Changes to LILO for versions 21.2 and later are
6 documented in detail in the 'man' pages for 'lilo' and 'lilo.conf'.
7 Refer to them first, then to this document.
10 Version 21-4 (release) -- John Coffman <johninsd@san.rr.com>
12 Minor changes suggested by Werner to show that this release is derived
13 from the source code to his version 21. Added VERSION_MAJOR and
14 VERSION_MINOR to replace VERSION. The file VERSION is replaced by
17 The first and second stage loaders have been modified so that ONLY
18 'lba32' will use EDD packet calls. 'linear' will now always ask the
19 BIOS for the disk geometry, and then use C:H:S addressing.
22 Version 21-2 -- John Coffman <johninsd@san.rr.com>
24 This version was created to allow booting on disks larger than 8.4Gb using
25 the Enhanced BIOS call (int 0x13, AH=0x42) and the packet-call interface.
26 These calls are supported on post-1998 systems, and through software BIOS
27 extensions such as EZ-DRIVE(tm).
29 My primary objective in making these changes to LILO, is not to break any-
30 thing. Hence, the 32-bit direct addressing of sectors is supported by a
31 new keyword in the 'lilo.conf' file: "lba32". This keyword is mutually
32 exclusive with the keyword "linear". On the command line, these options
33 are invoked with the new "-L" switch, or the old "-l" switch, respectively.
35 Apologies to Werner Almesberger for not communicating these changes/addi-
36 tions to him directly; but I have not been able to contact him by e-mail
37 at the address he provided in the latest 'lilo.lsm' file. I do not want
38 versions of LILO to get out-of-step.
40 Disk sector addresses are conveyed from the Map Installer (lilo executable)
41 to the boot loaders, first- and second-stages through a 5 byte structure:
43 sector [1..63] plus 2 high bits of Cylinder
44 cylinder [0..1023] low eight bits in this byte
45 device [0..3] for floppies, [0x80..0x8F] for hard disks
46 head [0..254] no, the max is 254, not 255
47 count [1...] number of sectors to transfer
49 The first two bytes are normally loaded into the CX register, the second
51 bytes into the DX register, and the last byte into the AL register. This
53 the call used for the C:H:S addressing scheme of the original IBM-PC BIOS.
54 LILO checks that the 64Kb DMA boundary is never crossed by a call, and that
55 the count never exceeds the sector count of one track on the disk.
57 When 'linear' is specified, a 24-bit, 0 based addressing scheme is
59 The low 8 bits are in 'sector'; the middle 8 bits in 'cylinder'; and the
61 8 bits are in 'head'. To flag this as a 'linear' address, the 'device'
63 has bit 6 set (mask 0x40 or'ed in). The count field is a maximum of 128,
64 since anything greater would cross a 64Kb DMA boundary. It is up to the
65 loader code (second stage only), to check that no track boundary is
68 The situation is more complicated with 'lba32' addressing. It is flagged
70 bit 5 of the 'device' byte being set (mask 0x20 or'ed in). The 32-bit
72 is spread over the 'sector', 'cylinder', 'head', and 'count' fields, from
74 byte to high byte, respectively. Whenever this full 32-bit address is
75 specified explicitly, the actual sector count to transfer is implied to be
76 one (1), and this fact is flagged in the 'device' byte by setting bit 5
77 (mask 0x10 or'ed in). When a multi-sector transfer is called for, the high
78 8-bits of the address are NOT specified explicitly, but are assumed to be
79 the same as the previous transfer, the 'count' of sectors to transfer will
80 be in the range [2..127], and bit 5 (mask 0x10) of the 'device' byte will
84 The first-stage loader uses single sector transfers only, so it uses a
85 simplified disk read routine, always assumes a sector transfer count of 1,
86 and always assumes that the full 32-bit address of the sector is specified
87 when 'lba32' mode is detected in the 'device' byte. However, the second-
88 stage loader is capable of multi-sector transfers when map-compaction has
89 been used (-c switch, or 'compact' global option), so it uses the fully
90 capable read routine to load the -initrd- image, and the -kernel- image.
92 Both 'linear' and 'lba32' will use the Enhanced BIOS packet calls, if they
93 are available. Otherwise, the disk address is converted to C:H:S, using
95 disk geometry returned by (int 0x13, AH=8). If cylinder overflow occurs --
96 i.e., cylinder > 1023, then error code '9f' is issued.
98 The BIOS calls used to implement large disk booting conform to the Enhanced
99 Disk Drive Specification, version 3.0, rev 0.8, dated March 12, 1998. This
100 document is available on-line from Phoenix Technologies Ltd., at:
102 http://www.phoenix.com/products/specs.html
105 The chain loader, 'os2_d.b', still will not boot OS2 4.0 from a
107 partition on my "D:" drive. Boot Manager can, and I am still working on
109 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
114 Important: The file INCOMPAT contains vital (in)compatibility information
115 for this release of LILO. Read it before proceeding.
117 Installing boot loaders is inherently dangerous. Be sure to have some means
118 to boot your system from a different media if you install LILO on your hard
122 There is also a LaTeX version of this document in the "doc" directory.
123 It is much nicer to read than pure ASCII.
129 Please read the file INCOMPAT for compatibility notes.
131 The installation procedure is described in the section "Normal first-time
132 installation". Please read "Booting basics" for the whole story.
134 *** QUICK INSTALLATION ***
136 If you want to install LILO on your hard disk and if you don't want
137 to use all its features, you can use the quick installation script.
138 Read QuickInst for details.
142 LILO is a versatile boot loader for Linux. It does not depend on a
143 specific file system, can boot Linux kernel images from floppy disks and
144 from hard disks and can even act as a "boot manager" for other operating
147 * PC/MS-DOS, DR DOS, OS/2, Windows 95, Windows NT, 386BSD, SCO UNIX,
150 One of up to sixteen different images can be selected at boot time. Various
151 parameters, such as the root device, can be set independently for each
152 kernel. LILO can even be used as the master boot record.
154 This document introduces the basics of disk organization and booting,
155 continues with an overview of common boot techniques and finally describes
156 installation and use of LILO in greater detail. The troubleshooting section
157 at the end describes diagnostic messages and contains suggestions for most
158 problems that have been observed in the past.
160 Please read at least the sections about installation and configuration if
161 you're already using an older version of LILO. This distribution is
162 accompanied by a file named INCOMPAT that describes further
163 incompatibilities to older versions.
165 For the impatient: there is a quick-installation script to create a simple
166 but quite usable installation. See section "Quick installation" for
169 But wait ... here are a few easy rules that will help you to avoid most
170 problems people experience with LILO:
172 - _Don't panic._ If something doesn't work, try to find out what is
173 wrong, try to verify your assumption and only then attempt to fix it.
174 - Read the documentation. Especially if what the system does doesn't
175 correspond to what you think it should do.
176 - Make sure you have an emergency boot disk, that you know how to use it,
177 and that it is always kept up to date.
178 - Run /sbin/lilo _whenever_ the kernel or any part of LILO, including its
179 configuration file, has changed. When in doubt, run it. You can't run
180 /sbin/lilo too many times.
181 - If performing a destructive upgrade and/or erasing your Linux
182 partitions, de-install LILO _before_ that if using it as the MBR.
183 - Don't trust setup scripts. Always verify the /etc/lilo.conf they create
185 - If using a big disk, be prepared for inconveniences: you may have to
186 use the LINEAR option.
192 LILO is a collection of several programs and other files:
194 The map installer is the program you run under Linux to put all files
195 belonging to LILO at the appropriate places and to record information
196 about the location of data needed at boot time. This program normally
197 resides in /sbin/lilo. It has to be run to refresh that information
198 whenever any part of the system that LILO knows about changes, e.g.
199 after installing a new kernel.
200 Various files contain data LILO needs at boot time, e.g. the boot
201 loader. Those files normally reside in /boot. The most important files
202 are the boot loader (see below) and the map file (/boot/map), where the
203 map installer records the location of the kernel(s).* Another important
204 file is the configuration file, which is normally called /etc/lilo.conf
205 The boot loader is the part of LILO that is loaded by the BIOS and that
206 loads kernels or the boot sectors of other operating systems. It also
207 provides a simple command-line interface to interactively select the
208 item to boot and to add boot options.
210 * LILO does not know how to read a file system. Instead, the map
211 installer asks the kernel for the physical location of files (e.g. the
212 kernel image(s)) and records that information. This allows LILO to work
213 with most file systems that are supported by Linux.
215 LILO primarily accesses the following parts of the system:
217 The root file system partition is important for two reasons: first, LILO
218 sometimes has to tell the kernel where to look for it. Second, it is
219 frequently a convenient place for many other items LILO uses, such as
220 the boot sector, the /boot directory, and the kernels.
221 The boot sector contains the first part of LILO's boot loader. It loads
222 the much larger second-stage loader. Both loaders are typically stored
223 in the file /boot/boot.b
224 The kernel is loaded and started by the boot loader. Kernels typically
225 reside in the root directory or in /boot.
227 Note that many of the files LILO needs at boot time have to be accessible
228 with the BIOS. This creates certain restrictions, see section "BIOS
235 The following sections describe how PCs boot in general and what has to be
236 known when booting Linux and using LILO in particular.
242 When designing a boot concept, it is important to understand some of the
243 subtleties of how PCs typically organize disks. The most simple case are
244 floppy disks. They consist of a boot sector, some administrative data (FAT
245 or super block, etc.) and the data area. Because that administrative data
246 is irrelevant as far as booting is concerned, it is regarded as part of the
247 data area for simplicity.
249 +---------------------------+
256 +---------------------------+
258 The entire disk appears as one device (e.g. /dev/fd0) on Linux.
260 The MS-DOS boot sector has the following structure:
262 +------------------------+
263 0x000 |Jump to the program code|
264 |------------------------|
268 |------------------------|
273 |------------------------|
274 0x1FE | Magic number (0xAA55) |
275 +------------------------+
277 LILO uses a similar boot sector, but it does not contain the disk
278 parameters part. This is no problem for Minix, Ext2 or similar file
279 systems, because they don't look at the boot sector, but putting a LILO
280 boot sector on an MS-DOS file system would make it inaccessible for MS-DOS.
282 Hard disks are organized in a more complex way than floppy disks. They
283 contain several data areas called partitions. Up to four so-called primary
284 partitions can exist on an MS-DOS hard disk. If more partitions are needed,
285 one primary partition is used as an extended partition that contains
286 several logical partitions.
288 The first sector of each hard disk contains a partition table, and an
289 extended partition and _each_ logical partition contains a partition table
292 +--------------------------------------------+
293 | Partition table /dev/hda |
294 | +------------------------------------------|
295 | | Partition 1 /dev/hda1 |
297 | |------------------------------------------|
298 | | Partition 2 /dev/hda2 |
300 +--------------------------------------------+
302 The entire disk can be accessed as /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, /dev/sda, etc. The
303 primary partitions are /dev/hda1 ... /dev/hda4.
305 +--------------------------------------------+
306 | Partition table /dev/hda |
307 | +------------------------------------------|
308 | | Partition 1 /dev/hda1 |
310 | |------------------------------------------|
311 | | Partition 2 /dev/hda2 |
313 | |------------------------------------------|
314 | | Extended partition /dev/hda3 |
315 | | +----------------------------------------|
316 | | | Extended partition table |
317 | | |----------------------------------------|
318 | | | Partition 3 /dev/hda5 |
320 | | |----------------------------------------|
321 | | | Extended partition table |
322 | | |----------------------------------------|
323 | | | Partition 4 /dev/hda6 |
325 +--------------------------------------------+
327 This hard disk has two primary partitions and an extended partition that
328 contains two logical partitions. They are accessed as /dev/hda5 ...
330 Note that the partition tables of logical partitions are not accessible as
331 the first blocks of some devices, while the main partition table, all boot
332 sectors and the partition tables of extended partitions are.
334 Partition tables are stored in partition boot sectors. Normally, only the
335 partition boot sector of the entire disk is used as a boot sector. It is
336 also frequently called the master boot record (MBR). Its structure is as
339 +------------------------+
344 |------------------------|
345 0x1BE | Partition table |
347 |------------------------|
348 0x1FE | Magic number (0xAA55) |
349 +------------------------+
351 The LILO boot sector is designed to be usable as a partition boot sector.
352 (I.e. there is room for the partition table.) Therefore, the LILO boot
353 sector can be stored at the following locations:
355 - boot sector of a Linux floppy disk. (/dev/fd0, ...)
356 - MBR of the first hard disk. (/dev/hda, /dev/sda, ...)
357 - boot sector of a primary Linux file system partition on the first hard
358 disk. (/dev/hda1, ...)
359 - partition boot sector of an extended partition on the first hard disk.
362 * Most FDISK-type programs don't believe in booting from an extended
363 partition and refuse to activate it. LILO is accompanied by a simple
364 program (activate) that doesn't have this restriction. Linux fdisk also
365 supports activating extended partitions.
367 It _can't_ be stored at any of the following locations:
369 - boot sector of a non-Linux floppy disk or primary partition.
370 - a Linux swap partition.
371 - boot sector of a logical partition in an extended partition.*
372 - on the second hard disk. (Unless for backup installations, if the
373 current first disk will be removed or disabled, or if some other boot
374 loader is used, that is capable of loading boot sectors from other
377 * LILO can be forced to put the boot sector on such a partition by using
378 the -b option or the BOOT variable. However, only few programs that
379 operate as master boot records support booting from a logical
382 Although LILO tries to detect attempts to put its boot sector at an invalid
383 location, you should not rely on that.
389 When booting from a floppy disk, the first sector of the disk, the
390 so-called boot sector, is loaded. That boot sector contains a small program
391 that loads the respective operating system. MS-DOS boot sectors also
392 contain a data area, where disk and file system parameters (cluster size,
393 number of sectors, number of heads, etc.) are stored.
395 When booting from a hard disk, the very first sector of that disk, the
396 so-called master boot record (MBR) is loaded. This sector contains a loader
397 program and the partition table of the disk. The loader program usually
398 loads the boot sector, as if the system was booting from a floppy.
400 Note that there is no functional difference between the MBR and the boot
401 sector other than that the MBR contains the partition information but
402 doesn't contain any file system-specific information (e.g. MS-DOS disk
405 The first 446 (0x1BE) bytes of the MBR are used by the loader program. They
406 are followed by the partition table, with a length of 64 (0x40) bytes. The
407 last two bytes contain a magic number that is sometimes used to verify that
408 a given sector really is a boot sector.
410 There is a large number of possible boot configurations. The most common
411 ones are described in the following sections.
417 +-------------------------------------------------------+
418 | Master Boot Record Boot sector Operating system |
419 |-------------------------------------------------------|
420 | DOS-MBR ------------> MS-DOS ------> COMMAND.COM |
421 +-------------------------------------------------------+
423 This is what usually happens when MS-DOS boots from a hard disk: the
424 DOS-MBR determines the active partition and loads the MS-DOS boot sector.
425 This boot sector loads MS-DOS and finally passes control to COMMAND.COM.
426 (This is greatly simplified.)
432 +------------------------------------------------------------+
433 | Master Boot Record Boot sector Operating system |
434 |------------------------------------------------------------|
435 | DOS-MBR ------------> MS-DOS ------> COMMAND.COM |
436 | ---> LOADLIN ------> Linux |
437 +------------------------------------------------------------+
439 A typical LOADLIN setup: everything happens like when booting MS-DOS, but
440 in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT, LOADLIN is invoked. Typically, a program
441 like BOOT.SYS is used to choose among configuration sections in CONFIG.SYS
442 and AUTOEXEC.BAT. This approach has the pleasant property that no boot
443 sectors have to be altered.
445 Please refer to the documentation accompanying the LOADLIN package for
446 installation instructions and further details.
449 LILO started by DOS-MBR
450 - - - - - - - - - - - -
452 +-------------------------------------------------------+
453 | Master Boot Record Boot sector Operating system |
454 |-------------------------------------------------------|
455 | DOS-MBR ------------> LILO --------> Linux |
457 +-------------------------------------------------------+
459 This is a "safe" LILO setup: LILO is booted by the DOS-MBR. No other boot
460 sectors have to be touched. If the other OS (or one of them, if there are
461 several other operating systems being used) should be booted without using
462 LILO, the other partition has to be marked "active" with fdisk or activate.
466 - install LILO with its boot sector on the Linux partition.
467 - use fdisk or activate to make that partition active.
472 - make a different partition active.
473 - install whatever should replace LILO and/or Linux.
476 Several alternate branches
477 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
479 +------------------------------------------------------------+
480 | Master Boot Record Boot sector Operating system |
481 |------------------------------------------------------------|
482 | DOS-MBR ------------> MS-DOS ------> COMMAND.COM |
483 | ---> LOADLIN ------> Linux |
484 | ---> LILO --------> Linux |
485 | ---> MS-DOS --- ... |
486 +------------------------------------------------------------+
488 An extended form of the above setup: the MBR is not changed and both
489 branches can either boot Linux or MS-DOS. (LILO could also boot other
493 LILO started by BOOTACTV*
494 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
496 * Other, possibly better known boot switchers, e.g. OS/2 BootManager
497 operate in a similar way. The installation procedures typically vary.
499 +-------------------------------------------------------+
500 | Master Boot Record Boot sector Operating system |
501 |-------------------------------------------------------|
502 | BOOTACTV -----------> LILO --------> Linux |
504 +-------------------------------------------------------+
506 Here, the MBR is replaced by BOOTACTV (or any other interactive boot
507 partition selector) and the choice between Linux and the other operating
508 system(s) can be made at boot time. This approach should be used if LILO
509 fails to boot the other operating system(s).*
511 * And the author would like to be notified if booting the other
512 operating system(s) doesn't work with LILO, but if it works with an
513 other boot partition selector.
518 - make a backup copy of your MBR on a floppy disk, e.g.
519 dd if=/dev/hda of=/fd/MBR bs=512 count=1
520 - install LILO with the boot sector on the Linux partition.
521 - install BOOTACTV as the MBR, e.g.
522 dd if=bootactv.bin of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
528 - restore the old MBR, e.g.
529 dd if=/MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
530 or FDISK /MBR under MS-DOS.
532 If replacing the MBR appears undesirable and if a second Linux partition
533 exists (e.g. /usr, _not_ a swap partition), BOOTACTV can be merged with the
534 partition table and stored as the "boot sector" of that partition. Then,
535 the partition can be marked active to be booted by the DOS-MBR.
539 # dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hda3 bs=512 count=1
540 # dd if=bootactv.bin of=/dev/hda3 bs=446 count=1
542 _WARNING:_ Whenever the disk is re-partitioned, the merged boot sector on
543 that "spare" Linux partition has to be updated too.
549 +----------------------------------------+
550 | Master Boot Record Operating system |
551 |----------------------------------------|
552 | LILO ---------------> Linux |
554 +----------------------------------------+
556 LILO can also take over the entire boot procedure. If installed as the MBR,
557 LILO is responsible for either booting Linux or any other OS. This approach
558 has the disadvantage, that the old MBR is overwritten and has to be
559 restored (either from a backup copy, with FDISK /MBR on recent versions of
560 MS-DOS or by overwriting it with something like BOOTACTV) if Linux should
561 ever be removed from the system.
563 You should verify that LILO is able to boot your other operating system(s)
564 before relying on this method.
569 - make a backup copy of your MBR on a floppy disk, e.g.
570 dd if=/dev/hda of=/fd/MBR bs=512 count=1
571 - install LILO with its boot sector as the MBR.
577 - restore the old MBR, e.g.
578 dd if=/fd/MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
580 If you've installed LILO as the master boot record, you have to explicitly
581 specify the boot sector (configuration variable BOOT=...) when updating the
582 map. Otherwise, it will try to use the boot sector of your current root
583 partition, which will usually work, but it will probably leave your system
590 The following names have been used to describe boot sectors or parts of
593 "DOS-MBR" is the original MS-DOS MBR. It scans the partition table for a
594 partition that is marked "active" and loads the boot sector of that
595 partition. Programs like MS-DOS' FDISK, Linux fdisk or activate
596 (accompanies LILO) can change the active marker in the partition table.
597 "MS-DOS" denotes the MS-DOS boot sector that loads the other parts of
598 the system (IO.SYS, etc.).
599 "COMMAND.COM" is the standard command interpreter of MS-DOS.
600 "LOADLIN" is a program that loads a Linux kernel image from an MS-DOS
601 partition into memory and executes it. It is usually invoked from
602 CONFIG.SYS and is used in combination with a CONFIG.SYS configuration
603 switcher, like BOOT.SYS.*
604 "LILO" can either load a Linux kernel or the boot sector of any other
605 operating system. It has a first stage boot sector that loads the
606 remaining parts of LILO from various locations.**
607 "BOOTACTV" permits interactive selection of the partition from which the
608 boot sector should be read. If no key is pressed within a given
609 interval, the partition marked active is booted. BOOTACTV is included
610 in the pfdisk package. There are also several similar programs, like
613 * LOADLIN is available for anonymous FTP from
614 ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/dos_utils/lodlin<n>.tar.gz
615 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/dualboot/lodlin<n>.tgz
616 BOOT.SYS is available for anonymous FTP from
617 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/tools/boot142.zip
619 ** LILO can be found in
620 ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/lilo/lilo-<n>.tar.gz
621 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/lilo/lilo-<n>.tar.gz
622 ftp://lrcftp.epfl.ch/pub/linux/local/lilo/lilo-<n>.tar.gz
624 *** pfdisk is available for anonymous FTP from
625 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/pfdisk.tar.Z or
626 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/tools/pfdisk.tar.Z
627 PBOOT can be found in
628 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/tools/pboot.zip
631 Choosing the "right" boot concept
632 -----------------------------------
634 Although LILO can be installed in many different ways, the choice is
635 usually limited by the present setup and therefore, typically only a small
636 number of configurations which fit naturally into an existing system
637 remains. The following sections describe various possible cases. See also
638 section "BIOS restrictions".
640 The configuration file /etc/lilo.conf for the examples could look like
651 It installs a Linux kernel image (/vmlinuz), an alternate Linux kernel
652 image (/vmlinuz.old) and a chain loader to boot MS-DOS from /dev/hda1. The
653 option COMPACT on the second line instructs the map installer to optimize
656 In all examples, the names of the IDE-type hard disk devices (/dev/hda...)
657 are used. Everything applies to other disk types (e.g. SCSI disks;
664 Nowadays, an increasing number of systems is equipped with comparably large
665 disks or even with multiple disks. At the time the disk interface of the
666 standard PC BIOS has been designed (about 16 years ago), such
667 configurations were apparently considered to be too unlikely to be worth
670 The most common BIOS restrictions that affect LILO are the limitation to
671 two hard disks and the inability to access more than 1024 cylinders per
672 disk. LILO can detect both conditions, but in order to work around the
673 underlying problems, manual intervention is necessary.
675 The drive limit does not exist in every BIOS. Some modern motherboards and
676 disk controllers are equipped with a BIOS that supports more (typically
677 four) disk drives. When attempting to access the third, fourth, etc. drive,
678 LILO prints a warning message but continues. Unless the BIOS really
679 supports more than two drives, the system will _not_ be able to boot in
682 * However, if only "unimportant" parts of the system are located on the
683 "high" drives, some functionality may be available.
685 The cylinder limit is a very common problem with IDE disks. There, the
686 number of cylinders may already exceed 1024 if the drive has a capacity of
687 more than 504 MB. Many SCSI driver BIOSes present the disk geometry in a
688 way that makes the limit occur near 1 GB. Modern disk controllers may even
689 push the limit up to about 8 GB. All cylinders beyond the 1024th are
690 inaccessible for the BIOS. LILO detects this problem and aborts the
691 installation (unless the LINEAR option is used, see section "Global
694 Note that large partitions that only partially extend into the "forbidden
695 zone" are still in jeopardy even if they appear to work at first, because
696 the file system does not know about the restrictions and may allocate disk
697 space from the area beyond the 1024th cylinder when installing new kernels.
698 LILO therefore prints a warning message but continues as long as no
699 imminent danger exists.
701 There are four approaches of how such problems can be solved:
703 - use of a different partition which is on an accessible disk and which
704 does not exceed the 1024 cylinder limit. If there is only a DOS
705 partition which fulfills all the criteria, that partition can be used
706 to store the relevant files. (See section "/boot on a DOS partition".)
707 - rearranging partitions and disks. This is typically a destructive
708 operation, so extra care should be taken to make good backups.
709 - if the system is running DOS or Windows 95, LOADLIN can be used instead
711 - if all else fails, installation of a more capable BIOS, a different
712 controller or a different disk configuration.
714 LILO depends on the BIOS to load the following items:
717 - /boot/map (created when running /sbin/lilo)
719 - the boot sectors of all other operating systems it boots
720 - the startup message, if one has been defined
722 Normally, this implies that the Linux root file system should be in the
723 "safe" area. However, it is already sufficient to put all kernels into
724 /boot and to either mount a "good" partition on /boot or to let /boot be a
725 symbolic link pointing to or into such a partition.
727 See also /usr/src/linux/Documentation/ide.txt (or
728 /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/README.ide in older kernels) for a detailed
729 description of problems with large disks.
732 One disk, Linux on a primary partition
733 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
735 If at least one primary partition of the first hard disk is used as a Linux
736 file system (/, /usr, etc. but _not_ as a swap partition), the LILO boot
737 sector should be stored on that partition and it should be booted by the
738 original master boot record or by a program like BOOTACTV.
740 +--------------------------+
742 | +------------------------|
743 | | MS-DOS /dev/hda1 |
744 | |------------------------|
745 --> | | Linux / /dev/hda2 |
746 +--------------------------+
748 In this example, the BOOT variable could be omitted, because the boot
749 sector is on the root partition.
752 One disk, Linux on a logical partition
753 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
755 If no primary partition is available for Linux, but at least one logical
756 partition of an extended partition on the first hard disk contains a Linux
757 file system, the LILO boot sector should be stored in the partition sector
758 of the extended partition and it should be booted by the original master
759 boot record or by a program like BOOTACTV.
761 +--------------------------+
763 | +------------------------|
764 | | MS-DOS /dev/hda1 |
765 | |------------------------|
766 --> | | Extended /dev/hda2 |
767 | | +----------------------|
768 | | | Linux /dev/hda5 |
769 | | |----------------------|
770 | | | ... /dev/hda6 |
771 +--------------------------+
773 Because many disk partitioning programs refuse to make an extended
774 partition (in our example /dev/hda2) active, you might have to use
775 activate, which comes with the LILO distribution.
777 OS/2 BootManager should be able to boot LILO boot sectors from logical
778 partitions. The installation on the extended partition itself is not
779 necessary in this case.
782 Two disks, Linux (at least partially) on the first disk
783 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
785 This case is equivalent to the configurations where only one disk is in the
786 system. The Linux boot sector resides on the first hard disk and the second
787 disk is used later in the boot process.
789 Only the location of the boot sector matters - everything else
790 (/boot/boot.b, /boot/map, the root file system, a swap partition, other
791 Linux file systems, etc.) can be located anywhere on the second disk,
792 provided that the constraints described in section "BIOS restrictions" are
796 Two disks, Linux on second disk, first disk has an extended partition
797 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
799 If there is no Linux partition on the first disk, but there is an extended
800 partition, the LILO boot sector can be stored in the partition sector of
801 the extended partition and it should be booted by the original master boot
802 record or by a program like BOOTACTV.
804 FIRST DISK SECOND DISK
805 +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+
806 | MBR /dev/hda | | MBR /dev/hdb |
807 | +------------------------| | +------------------------|
808 | | MS-DOS /dev/hda1 | | | Linux /dev/hdb1 |
809 | |------------------------| | |------------------------|
810 --> | | Extended /dev/hda2 | | | ... /dev/hdb2 |
811 | | +----------------------| | | |
812 | | | ... /dev/hda5 | | | |
813 | | |----------------------| | | |
814 | | | ... /dev/hda6 | | | |
815 +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+
817 The program activate, that accompanies LILO, may have to be used to set the
818 active marker on an extended partition, because MS-DOS' FDISK and some
819 older version of Linux fdisk refuse to do that. (Which is generally a good
823 Two disks, Linux on second disk, first disk has no extended partition
824 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
826 If there is neither a Linux partition nor an extended partition on the
827 first disk, then there's only one place left, where a LILO boot sector
828 could be stored: the master boot record.
830 In this configuration, LILO is responsible for booting all other operating
833 FIRST DISK SECOND DISK
834 +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+
835 --> | MBR /dev/hda | | MBR /dev/hdb |
836 | +------------------------| | +------------------------|
837 | | MS-DOS /dev/hda1 | | | Linux /dev/hdb1 |
838 | |------------------------| | |------------------------|
839 | | ... /dev/hda2 | | | ... /dev/hdb2 |
840 +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+
842 You should back up your old MBR before installing LILO and verify that LILO
843 is able to boot your other operating system(s) before relying on this
846 The line boot = /dev/hda2 in /etc/lilo.conf would have to be changed to
847 boot = /dev/hda in this example.
853 On systems with more than two disks, typically only the first two can be
854 accessed. The configuration choices are therefore the same as with two
857 When attempting to access one of the extra disks, LILO displays a warning
858 message ( Warning: BIOS drive 0x<number> may not be accessible ) but does
859 not abort. This is done in order to allow the lucky few whose BIOS (or
860 controller-BIOS) does support more than two drives to make use of this
861 feature. By all others, this warning should be considered a fatal error.
863 Note that the two disks restriction is only imposed by the BIOS. Linux
864 normally has no problems using all disks once it is booted.
867 /boot on a DOS partition
868 - - - - - - - - - - - -
870 Recent kernels support all the functions LILO needs to map files also on
871 MS-DOS (or UMSDOS) file systems. Since DOS partitions tend to occupy
872 exactly the places where BIOS restrictions (see section "BIOS
873 restrictions") are invisible, they're an ideal location for /boot if the
874 native Linux file systems can't be used because of BIOS problems.
876 In order to accomplish this, the DOS partition is mounted read-write, a
877 directory (e.g. /dos/linux) is created, all files from /boot are moved to
878 that directory, /boot is replaced by a symbolic link to it, the kernels are
879 also moved to the new directory, their new location is recorded in
880 /etc/lilo.conf, and finally /sbin/lilo is run.
882 From then on, new kernels must always be copied into that directory on the
883 DOS partition before running /sbin/lilo, e.g. when recompiling a kernel,
884 the standard procedure changes from
891 # mv /dos/linux/vmlinuz /dos/linux/vmlinuz.old
892 # mv arch/i386/boot/zImage /dos/linux/vmlinuz
895 _WARNING:_ De-fragmenting such a DOS partition is likely to make Linux or
896 even the whole system unbootable. Therefore, the DOS partition should
897 either not be de-fragmented, or a Linux boot disk should be prepared (and
898 tested) to bring up Linux and to run /sbin/lilo after the
901 * Setting the "system" attribute from DOS on the critical files (e.g.
902 everything in C:\LINUX) may help to protect them from being rearranged.
903 However, the boot floppy should still be ready, just in case.
909 Immediately after it's loaded, LILO checks whether one of the following is
912 - any of the [Shift], [Control] or [Alt] keys is pressed.
913 - [CapsLock] or [ScrollLock] is set.
915 If this is the case, LILO displays the boot: prompt and waits for the name
916 of a boot image (i.e. Linux kernel or other operating system). Otherwise,
917 it boots the default boot image* or - if a delay has been specified - waits
918 for one of the listed activities until that amount of time has passed.
920 * The default boot image is either the first boot image, the image
921 specified with the DEFAULT variable, or the image that has been
922 selected at the boot prompt.
924 At the boot prompt, the name of the image to boot can be entered. Typing
925 errors can be corrected with [BackSpace], [Delete], [Ctrl U] and [Ctrl X].
926 A list of known images can be obtained by pressing [?] or [Tab].
928 If [Enter] is pressed and no file name has been entered, the default image
932 Boot command-line options
933 -------------------------
935 LILO is also able to pass command-line options to the kernel. Command-line
936 options are words that follow the name of the boot image and that are
941 boot: linux single root=200
943 This document only gives an overview of boot options. Please consult Paul
944 Gortmaker's BootPrompt-HOWTO for a more complete and more up to date list.
946 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO.gz or from one
947 of the many mirror sites.
953 Recent kernels recognize a large number of options, among them are debug ,
954 no387 , no-hlt , ramdisk=<size> , reserve=<base>,<size>,... ,
955 root=<device> , ro , and rw . All current init programs also recognize
956 the option single . The options lock and vga are processed by the boot
957 loader itself. Boot command-line options are always case-sensitive.
959 single boots the system in single-user mode. This bypasses most system
960 initialization procedures and directly starts a root shell on the console.
961 Multi-user mode can typically be entered by exiting the single-user shell
964 root=<device> changes the root device. This overrides settings that may
965 have been made in the boot image and on the LILO command line. <device> is
966 either the hexadecimal device number or the full path name of the device,
969 * The device names are hard-coded in the kernel. Therefore, only the
970 "standard" names are supported and some less common devices may not be
971 recognized. In those cases, only numbers can be used.
973 reserve=<base>,<size>,... reserves IO port regions. This can be used to
974 prevent device drivers from auto-probing addresses where other devices are
975 located, which get confused by the probing.
977 ro instructs the kernel to mount the root file system read-only. rw
978 mounts it read-write. If neither ro nor rw is specified, the setting
979 from the boot image is used.
981 no-hlt avoids executing a HLT instructions whenever the system is idle.
982 HLT normally significantly reduces power consumption and therefore also
983 heat dissipation of the CPU, but may not work properly with some clone
984 CPUs. no387 disables using the hardware FPU even if one is present.
986 debug enables more verbose console logging.
988 Recent kernels also accept the options init=<name> and noinitrd . init
989 specifies the name of the init program to execute. Therefore, if single
990 mode cannot be entered because init is mis-configured, one may still be
991 able to reach a shell using init=/bin/sh. noinitrd disables automatic
992 loading of the initial RAM disk. Instead, its content is then available on
995 vga=<mode> alters the VGA mode set at startup. The values normal ,
996 extended , ask or a decimal number are recognized. (See also "Booting
997 kernel images from a file".)
999 kbd=<code>,... preloads a sequence of keystrokes in the BIOS keyboard
1000 buffer. The keystrokes have to be entered as 16 bit hexadecimal numbers,
1001 with the upper byte containing the scan code and the lower byte containing
1002 the ASCII code. Note that most programs only use the ASCII code, so the
1003 scan code can frequently be omitted. Scan code tables can be found in many
1004 books on PC hardware. Note that scan codes depend on the keyboard layout.
1006 Finally, lock stores the current command-line as the default
1007 command-line, so that LILO boots the same image with the same options
1008 (including lock ) when invoked the next time.
1011 Device-specific options
1012 - - - - - - - - - - - -
1014 There is also a plethora of options to specify certain characteristics
1015 (e.g. IO and memory addresses) of devices. Some common ones are ether ,
1016 floppy , hd , bmouse , and sound . The usage of these options is
1017 <option>=<number>,... . Please consult the corresponding FAQs and HOWTOs
1018 for details. For an overview of all available options, consult the file
1019 init/main.c in the kernel source tree.
1025 Options of the type <variable>=<value> which are neither standard options
1026 nor device-specific options, cause the respective variables to be set in
1027 the environment passed to init. The case of the variable name is preserved,
1028 i.e. it isn't automatically converted to upper case.
1030 Note that environment variables passed to init are typically available in
1031 system initialization scripts (e.g. /etc/rc.local), but they're not visible
1032 from ordinary login sessions, because the login program removes them from
1033 the user's environment.
1039 The effect of repeating boot command-line options depends on the options.*
1040 There are three possible behaviours:
1042 * Options are frequently repeated when a string defined with APPEND or
1043 LITERAL is prepended to the parameters typed in by the user. Also, LILO
1044 implicitly prepends the options ramdisk , ro , root , or rw when
1045 RAMDISK, READ-ONLY, READ-WRITE, or ROOT, respectively, are set in the
1046 configuration file. ( lock and vga are handled by a different
1047 internal mechanism.)
1049 Options that only enable or disable a certain functionality can be repeated
1050 any number of times. debug , lock , no-hlt , and no387 fall into this
1053 Other options change a global setting whenever they appear, so only the
1054 value or presence of the last option matters. The antagonists ro and rw
1055 are such options. Also, ramdisk , root , and vga work this way.
1056 Example: ro rw would mount the root file system read-write.
1058 Finally, when reserve and many device-specific options are repeated, each
1059 occurrence has its own meaning, e.g. hd=... hd=... would configure two
1060 hard disks, and reserve=0x300,8 reserve=0x5f0,16 would reserve the ranges
1061 0x300 to 0x307 and 0x5f0 to 0x5ff (which is equivalent to writing
1062 reserve=0x300,8,0x5f0,16 ).
1068 LILO always passes the string BOOT_IMAGE=<name> to the kernel, where
1069 <name> is the name by which the kernel is identified (e.g. the label). This
1070 variable can be used in /etc/rc to select a different behaviour, depending
1073 When booting automatically, i.e. without human intervention, the word auto
1074 is also passed on the command line. This can be used by init to suppress
1075 interactive prompts in the boot phase.
1078 Boot image selection
1079 --------------------
1081 The details of selecting the boot image are somewhat complicated. The
1082 following tables illustrate them. First, if neither PROMPT is set nor a
1083 shift key is being pressed:
1085 Externally Command | Auto- Booted image
1086 provided line in | matic
1087 cmd. line* map file** | boot***
1088 ---------------------------------------------------------
1089 No No | Yes Default image
1090 Yes - | Yes Specified by external
1092 No Yes | Yes Specified by command line
1096 * Externally provided command lines could be used to add front-ends to
1097 LILO. They would pass the respective command string to LILO, which
1098 would then interpret it like keyboard input. This feature is currently
1101 ** This command line is set by invoking the map installer with the -R
1102 option, by using the boot command-line option lock , or if a fallback
1103 command line is set (with FALLBACK).
1105 *** I.e. the keyword auto is added.
1107 If PROMPT is not set and a shift key is being pressed:
1109 Input Empty Extern. Cmd.l. | Auto- Booted image
1110 timeout cmd.l. cmd.l. in map | matic
1112 -----------------------------------------------------------
1113 No No - - | No Specified by the user
1114 No Yes - - | No Default image
1115 Yes n/a - - | Yes Default image
1117 Finally, if the configuration variable PROMPT is set:
1119 Input Empty Extern. Cmd.l. | Auto- Booted image
1120 timeout cmd.l. cmd.l. in map | matic
1122 -----------------------------------------------------------
1123 No No No No | No Specified by the user
1124 No Yes No No | No Default image
1125 Yes n/a No No | Yes Default image
1126 n/a n/a Yes - | Yes Specified by external
1128 n/a n/a No Yes | Yes Specified by command
1131 Note that LILO pauses for the amount of time specified in DELAY when at the
1132 end of a default command line. The automatic boot can then be interrupted
1133 by pressing a modifier key ([Shift], [Ctrl], etc.).
1135 The default image is the first image in the map file or the image specified
1136 with the DEFAULT variable. However, after an unsuccessful boot attempt, the
1137 respective image becomes the default image.
1143 The map installer program /sbin/lilo updates the boot sector and creates
1144 the map file. If the map installer detects an error, it terminates
1145 immediately and does not touch the boot sector and the map file.
1147 Whenever the map installer updates a boot sector, the original boot sector
1148 is copied to /boot/boot.<number>, where <number> is the hexadecimal device
1149 number. If such a file already exists, no backup copy is made. Similarly, a
1150 file /boot/part.<number> is created if LILO modifies the partition table.
1151 (See "General per-image options".)
1154 Command-line options
1155 --------------------
1157 The LILO map installer can be invoked in the following ways:
1160 Show current installation
1161 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1163 The currently mapped files are listed. With -v , also many parameters are
1166 /sbin/lilo [ -C <config_file> ] -q [ -m <map_file> ] [ -v ... ]
1169 Specifies the configuration file that is used by the map installer
1170 (see section "Configuration"). If -C is omitted, /etc/lilo.conf is
1173 Specifies an alternate map file. See also sections "Options
1174 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1176 Lists the currently mapped files.
1178 Increase verbosity. See also sections "Options corresponding to
1179 configuration variables" and "Global options".
1182 Create or update map
1185 A new map is created for the images described in the configuration file
1186 /etc/lilo.conf and they are registered in the boot sector.
1188 /sbin/lilo [ -C <config_file> ] [ -b <boot_device> ] [ -c ] [ -l ] [ -i
1189 <boot_sector> ] [ -f <disk_tab> ] [ -m <map_file> ] [ -d <delay> ] [ -v
1190 ... ] [ -t ] [ -s <save_file> | -S <save_file> ] [ -P fix | -P ignore ]
1194 Specifies the boot device. See also sections "Options corresponding to
1195 configuration variables" and "Global options".
1197 Enables map compaction. See also sections "Options corresponding to
1198 configuration variables" and "Global options".
1200 Specifies an alternate configuration file. See also section "Show
1201 current installation".
1203 Sets the delay before LILO boots the default image. Note that the
1204 delay is specified in _tenths_ of a second. See also sections "Options
1205 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1207 Specifies the default image. See also sections "Options corresponding
1208 to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1210 Specifies a disk parameter table file. See also sections "Options
1211 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1213 Specifies an alternate boot file. See also sections "Options
1214 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1216 Enables lba32 sector addresses. See also sections "Options
1217 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1219 Enables linear sector addresses. See also sections "Options
1220 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1222 Specifies an alternate map file. See also sections "Options
1223 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1225 Specifies how invalid partition table entries should be handled. See
1226 also sections "Options corresponding to configuration variables" and
1229 Chroots to the specified directory before doing anything else. This is
1230 useful when running the map installer while the normal root file system
1231 is mounted somewhere else, e.g. when recovering from an installation
1232 failure with a recovery disk. The -r option is implied if the
1233 environment variable ROOT is set.* The current directory is changed
1234 to the new root directory, so using relative paths may not work.
1236 Specifies an alternate boot sector save file. See also sections
1237 "Options corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global
1240 Like -s , but overwrites old save files.
1242 Test only. This performs the entire installation procedure except
1243 replacing the map file, writing the modified boot sector and fixing
1244 partition tables. This can be used in conjunction with the -v option
1245 to verify that LILO will use sane values.
1247 Increase verbosity. See also sections "Options corresponding to
1248 configuration variables" and "Global options".
1250 * E.g. if your root partition is mounted on /mnt, you can update the map
1251 by simply running ROOT=/mnt /mnt/sbin/lilo
1254 Change default command line
1255 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1257 Changes LILO's default command line. See also section "Boot image
1260 /sbin/lilo [ -C <config_file> ] [ -m <map_file> ] -R [ <word> ... ]
1263 Specifies an alternate configuration file. See also section "Show
1264 current installation".
1266 Specifies an alternate map file. See also sections "Options
1267 corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global options".
1269 Stores the specified words in the map file. The boot loader uses those
1270 words as the default command line when booting the next time. That
1271 command line is removed from the map file by the boot loader by
1272 overwriting the sector immediately after reading it. The first word has
1273 to be the name of a boot image. If -R is not followed by any words,
1274 the current default command line in the map file is erased.* If the
1275 command line isn't valid, the map installer issues an error message and
1276 returns a non-zero exit code.
1278 * -R is typically used in reboot scripts, e.g.
1281 /sbin/lilo -R "$*" && reboot
1284 Kernel name translation
1285 - - - - - - - - - - - -
1287 Determines the path of the kernel.
1289 /sbin/lilo [ -C <config_file> ] -I <name> [ <options> ]
1292 Specifies an alternate configuration file. See also section "Show
1293 current installation".
1294 -I <name> [ <options> ]
1295 Translates the specified label name to the path of the corresponding
1296 kernel image and prints that path on standard output. This can be used
1297 to synchronize files that depend on the kernel (e.g. the ps database).
1298 The image name can be obtained from the environment variable
1299 BOOT_IMAGE . An error message is issued and a non-zero exit code is
1300 returned if no matching label name can be found. The existence of the
1301 image file is verified if the option character v is added.
1307 Restores the boot sector that was used before the installation of LILO.
1308 Note that this option only works properly if LILO's directories (e.g.
1309 /boot) have not been touched since the first installation. See also section
1310 "LILO de-installation".
1312 /sbin/lilo [ -C <config_file> ] [ -s <save_file> ] -u | -U [
1316 Specifies an alternate configuration file. See also section "Show
1317 current installation".
1319 Specifies an alternate boot sector save file. See also sections
1320 "Options corresponding to configuration variables" and "Global
1322 -u [ <device_name> ]
1323 Restores the backup copy of the specified boot sector. If no device is
1324 specified, the value of the boot variable is used. If this one is also
1325 unavailable, LILO uses the current root device. The name of the backup
1326 copy is derived from the device name. The -s option or the backup
1327 variable can be used to override this. LILO validates the backup copy
1328 by checking a time stamp.
1329 -U [ <device_name> ]
1330 Like -u, but does not check the time stamp.
1333 Print version number
1339 Print the version number and exit.
1342 Options corresponding to configuration variables
1343 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1345 There are also many command-line options that correspond to configuration
1346 variables. See section "Global options" for a description.
1348 Command-line option | Configuration variable
1349 ------------------------------------------------
1350 -b <boot_device> | boot=<boot_device>
1352 -d <tsecs> | delay=<tsecs>
1353 -D <name> | default=<name>
1354 -i <boot_sector> | install=<boot_sector>
1357 -m <map_file> | map=<map_file>
1359 -P ignore | ignore-table
1360 -s <backup_file> | backup=<backup_file>
1361 -S <backup_file> | force-backup=<backup_file>
1362 -v ... | verbose=<level>
1368 The configuration information is stored in the file /etc/lilo.conf and
1369 consists of variable assignments.
1375 The following syntax rules apply:
1377 - flag variables consist of a single word and are followed by whitespace
1378 or the end of the file.
1379 - string variables consist of the variable name, optional whitespace, an
1380 equal sign, optional whitespace, the value and required whitespace, or
1381 the end of the file.
1382 - a non-empty sequence of blanks, tabs, newlines and comments counts as
1384 - variable names are case-insensitive. Values are usually case-sensitive,
1385 but there are a few exceptions. (See below.)
1386 - tabs and newlines are special characters and may not be part of a
1387 variable name or a value. The use of other control characters and
1388 non-ASCII characters is discouraged.
1389 - blanks and equal signs may only be part of a variable name or a value
1390 if they are escaped by a backslash or if the value is embedded in
1391 double quotes. An equal sign may not be the only character in a name or
1393 - an escaped tab is converted to an escaped blank. An escaped newline is
1394 removed from the input stream. An escaped backslash (i.e. two
1395 backslashes) is converted to a backslash. Inside quoted strings, only
1396 double quotes, backslashes, dollar signs, and newlines can be escaped.
1397 - quoted strings can be continued over several lines by ending each
1398 incomplete line with a backslash. A single space is inserted in the
1399 string for the line end and all spaces or tabs that follow immediately
1401 - environment variables can be used by specifying them in the form
1402 $<name> or ${<name>}. Dollar signs can be escaped.
1403 - comments begin with a number sign and end with the next newline. All
1404 characters (including backslashes) until the newline are ignored.
1413 append = "nfsroot=/home/linux-install/root \
1414 nfsaddrs=128.178.156.28:128.178.156.24::255.255.255.0:lrcinst"
1421 /etc/lilo.conf begins with a possibly empty global options section. Many
1422 global options can also be set from the command line, but storing permanent
1423 options in the configuration file is more convenient.
1425 The following global options are recognized:
1427 BACKUP=<backup_file> Copy the original boot sector to <backup_file>
1428 (which may also be a device, e.g. /dev/null) instead of
1430 BOOT=<boot_device> Sets the name of the device (e.g. a hard disk
1431 partition) that contains the boot sector. If BOOT is omitted, the boot
1432 sector is read from (and possibly written to) the device that is
1433 currently mounted as root.
1434 CHANGE-RULES Defines partition type numbers. See section "Partition type
1435 change rules" for details.
1436 COMPACT Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
1437 read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the map
1438 smaller. Using COMPACT is especially recommended when booting from a
1439 floppy disk. COMPACT may conflict with LINEAR or LBA32, see section
1441 DEFAULT=<name> Uses the specified image as the default boot image. If
1442 DEFAULT is omitted, the image appearing first in the configuration file
1444 DELAY=<tsecs> Specifies the number of _tenths_ of a second LILO should
1445 wait before booting the first image. This is useful on systems that
1446 immediately boot from the hard disk after enabling the keyboard. LILO
1447 doesn't wait if DELAY is omitted or if DELAY is set to zero.
1448 DISK=<device_name> Defines non-standard parameters for the specified
1449 disk. See section "Disk geometry" for details.
1450 FIX-TABLE Allows LILO to adjust 3D addresses in partition tables. Each
1451 partition entry contains a 3D (sector/head/cylinder) and a linear
1452 32-bit address of the first and the last sector of the partition. If a
1453 partition is not track-aligned and if certain other operating systems
1454 (e.g. PC/MS-DOS or OS/2) are using the same disk, they may change the
1455 3D address. LILO can store its boot sector only on partitions where
1456 both address types correspond. LILO re-adjusts incorrect 3D start
1457 addresses if FIX-TABLE is set.
1459 _WARNING:_ This does not guarantee that other operating systems may
1460 not attempt to reset the address later. It is also possible that this
1461 change has other, unexpected side-effects. The correct fix is to
1462 re-partition the drive with a program that does align partitions to
1463 tracks. Also, with some disks (e.g. some large EIDE disks with address
1464 translation enabled), under some circumstances, it may even be
1465 unavoidable to have conflicting partition table entries.
1466 FORCE-BACKUP=<backup_file> Like BACKUP, but overwrite an old backup copy
1467 if it exists. BACKUP=<backup_file> is ignored if FORCE-BACKUP appears
1468 in the same configuration file.
1469 IGNORE-TABLE Tells LILO to ignore corrupt partition tables and to put
1470 the boot sector even on partitions that appear to be unsuitable for
1472 INSTALL=<boot_sector> Install the specified file as the new boot sector.
1473 If INSTALL is omitted, install=text is used as the default.
1474 KEYTABLE=<table_file> Re-map the keyboard as specified in this file. See
1475 section "Keyboard translation" for details.
1476 LBA32 Generate 32-bit Logical Block Addresses instead of
1477 sector/head/cylinder addresses. If the BIOS supports packet addressing,
1478 then packet calls will be used to access the disk. This allows booting
1479 from any partition on disks with more than 1024 cylinders. If the BIOS
1480 does not support packet addressing, then LBA32 addresses are translated
1481 to C:H:S, just as for LINEAR. All floppy disk references are retained
1482 in C:H:S form. Use of LBA32 is recommended on all post-1998 systems.
1483 LBA32 may conflict with COMPACT, see section "Other problems".
1484 LINEAR Generate linear sector addresses instead of sector/head/cylinder
1485 addresses. Linear addresses are translated at run time and do not
1486 depend on disk geometry. Note that boot disks may not be portable if
1487 LINEAR is used, because the BIOS service to determine the disk geometry
1488 does not work reliably for floppy disks. When using LINEAR with large
1489 disks, /sbin/lilo may generate references to inaccessible disk areas
1490 (see section "BIOS restrictions"), because 3D sector addresses are not
1491 known before boot time. LINEAR may conflict with COMPACT, see section
1493 MAP=<map_file> Specifies the location of the map file. If MAP is
1494 omitted, a file /boot/map is used.
1495 MESSAGE=<message_file> Specifies a file containing a message that is
1496 displayed before the boot prompt. No message is displayed while waiting
1497 for a modifier key ([Shift], etc.) after printing "LILO ". In the
1498 message, the FF character ([Ctrl L]) clears the local screen. The
1499 size of the message file is limited to 65535 bytes. The map file has to
1500 be rebuilt if the message file is changed or moved.
1501 NOWARN Disables warnings about possible future dangers.
1502 PROMPT Forces entering the boot prompt without expecting any prior
1503 key-presses. Unattended reboots are impossible if PROMPT is set and
1505 SERIAL=<parameters> Enables control from a serial line. The specified
1506 serial port is initialized and LILO is accepting input from it and from
1507 the PC's keyboard. Sending a break on the serial line corresponds to
1508 pressing a shift key on the console in order to get LILO's attention.
1509 All boot images should be password-protected if the serial access is
1510 less secure than access to the console, e.g. if the line is connected
1511 to a modem. The parameter string has the following syntax:
1512 <port>,<bps><parity><bits>
1513 The components <bps>, <parity> and <bits> can be omitted. If a
1514 component is omitted, all following components have to be omitted too.
1515 Additionally, the comma has to be omitted if only the port number is
1518 <port> the number of the serial port, zero-based. 0 corresponds to
1519 COM1 alias /dev/ttyS0, etc. All four ports can be used (if
1521 <bps> the baud rate of the serial port. The following baud rates are
1522 supported: 110, 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, and 38400 bps.
1523 Default is 2400 bps.
1524 <parity> the parity used on the serial line. LILO ignores input
1525 parity and strips the 8th bit. The following (upper or lower case)
1526 characters are used to describe the parity: n for no parity, e
1527 for even parity and o for odd parity.
1528 <bits> the number of bits in a character. Only 7 and 8 bits are
1529 supported. Default is 8 if parity is "none", 7 if parity is "even"
1532 If SERIAL is set, the value of DELAY is automatically raised to 20.
1534 Example: serial=0,2400n8 initializes COM1 with the default parameters.
1535 TIMEOUT=<tsecs> Sets a timeout (in tenths of a second) for keyboard
1536 input. If no key is pressed for the specified time, the first image is
1537 automatically booted. Similarly, password input is aborted if the user
1538 is idle for too long. The default timeout is infinite.
1539 VERBOSE=<level> Turns on lots of progress reporting. Higher numbers give
1540 more verbose output. If -v is additionally specified on the command
1541 line, <level> is increased accordingly. The following verbosity levels
1544 <0 only warnings and errors are shown
1545 0 prints one line for each added or skipped image
1546 1 mentions names of important files and devices and why they are
1547 accessed. Also displays informational messages for exceptional but
1548 harmless conditions and prints the version number.
1549 2 displays statistics and processing of temporary files and devices
1550 3 displays disk geometry information and partition table change
1552 4 lists sector mappings as they are written into the map file (i.e.
1553 after compaction, in a format suitable to pass it to the BIOS)
1554 5 lists the mapping of each sector (i.e. before compaction, raw)
1556 When using the -q option, the levels have a slightly different
1559 0 displays only image names
1560 1 also displays all global and per-image settings
1561 2 displays the address of the first map sector
1563 Additionally, the kernel configuration parameters APPEND, INITRD, RAMDISK,
1564 READ-ONLY, READ-WRITE, ROOT and VGA, and the general per-image options
1565 FALLBACK, LOCK, OPTIONAL, PASSWORD, RESTRICTED, and SINGLE-KEY can be set
1566 in the global options section. They are used as defaults if they aren't
1567 specified in the configuration sections of the respective images. See below
1570 The plethora of options may be intimidating at first, but in "normal"
1571 configurations, hardly any options but BOOT, COMPACT, DELAY, ROOT, and VGA
1575 General per-image options
1576 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1578 The following options can be specified for all images, independent of their
1581 ALIAS=<name> Specifies a second name for the current entry.
1582 FALLBACK=<command_line> Specifies a string that is stored as the default
1583 command line if the current image is booted. This is useful when
1584 experimenting with kernels which may crash before allowing interaction
1585 with the system. If using the FALLBACK option, the next reboot (e.g.
1586 triggered by a manual reset or by a watchdog timer) will load a
1587 different (supposedly stable) kernel. The command line by the fallback
1588 mechanism is cleared by removing or changing the default command line
1589 with the -R option, see "Change default command line".
1590 LABEL=<name> By default, LILO uses the main file name (without its path)
1591 of each image specification to identify that image. A different name
1592 can be used by setting the variable LABEL.
1593 LOCK Enables automatic recording of boot command lines as the defaults
1594 for the following boots. This way, LILO "locks" on a choice until it is
1595 manually overridden.
1596 OPTIONAL Omit this image if its main file is not available at map
1597 creation time. This is useful to specify test kernels that are not
1599 PASSWORD=<password> Ask the user for a password when trying to load this
1600 image. Because the configuration file contains unencrypted passwords
1601 when using this option, it should only be readable for the super-user.
1602 Passwords are always case-sensitive.
1603 RESTRICTED Relaxes the password protection by requiring a password only
1604 if parameters are specified on the command line (e.g. single).
1605 RESTRICTED can only be used together with PASSWORD.
1606 SINGLE-KEY Enables booting the image by hitting a single key, without
1607 the need to press [Enter] afterwards. SINGLE-KEY requires that either
1608 the image's label or its alias (or both) is a single character.
1609 Furthermore, no other image label or alias may start with that
1610 character, e.g. an entry specifying a label linux and an alias l is
1611 not allowed with SINGLE-KEY. Note that you can't specify command-line
1612 parameters for an entry for which only SINGLE-KEYed names exist.
1614 All general per-image options, with the exception of LABEL and ALIAS, can
1615 also be set in the global options section as defaults for all images.
1630 Per-image options for kernels
1631 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1633 Each (kernel or non-kernel) image description begins with a special
1634 variable (see section "Booting kernel images from a device") which is
1635 followed by optional variables. The following variables can be used for all
1636 image descriptions that describe a Linux kernel:
1638 APPEND=<string> Appends the options specified in <string> to the
1639 parameter line passed to the kernel. This is typically used to specify
1640 parameters of hardware that can't be entirely auto-detected, e.g.
1641 append = "aha152x=0x140,11"
1642 INITRD=<name> Specifies the file that will be loaded at boot time as the
1644 LITERAL=<string> like APPEND, but removes all other options (e.g.
1645 setting of the root device). Because vital options can be removed
1646 unintentionally with LITERAL, this option cannot be set in the global
1648 RAMDISK=<size> Specifies the size of the optional RAM disk. A value of
1649 zero indicates that no RAM disk should be created. If this variable is
1650 omitted, the RAM disk size configured into the boot image is used.
1651 READ-ONLY Specifies that the root file system should be mounted
1652 read-only. Typically, the system startup procedure re-mounts the root
1653 file system read-write later (e.g. after fsck'ing it).
1654 READ-WRITE specifies that the root file system should be mounted
1656 ROOT=<root_device> Specifies the device that should be mounted as root.
1657 If the special name CURRENT is used, the root device is set to the
1658 device on which the root file system is currently mounted. If the root
1659 has been changed with -r , the respective device is used. If the
1660 variable ROOT is omitted, the root device setting contained in the
1661 kernel image is used. It can be changed with the rdev program.
1662 VGA=<mode> Specifies the VGA text mode that should be selected when
1663 booting. The following values are recognized (case is ignored):
1665 NORMAL select normal 80x25 text mode.
1666 EXTENDED select 80x50 text mode. The word EXTENDED can be
1668 ASK stop and ask for user input (at boot time).
1669 <number> use the corresponding text mode. A list of available modes
1670 can be obtained by booting with vga=ask and pressing [Enter].
1672 If this variable is omitted, the VGA mode setting contained in the
1673 kernel image is used. rdev supports manipulation of the VGA text mode
1674 setting in the kernel image.
1676 All kernel per-image options but LITERAL can also be set in the global
1677 options section as defaults for all kernels.
1679 If one of RAMDISK, READ-ONLY, READ-WRITE, ROOT, or VGA is omitted in the
1680 configuration file and the corresponding value in the kernel image is
1681 changed, LILO or the kernel will use the new value.
1683 It is perfectly valid to use different settings for the same image, because
1684 LILO stores them in the image descriptors and not in the images themselves.
1699 LILO can boot the following types of images:
1701 - kernel images from a file.
1702 - kernel images from a block device. (E.g. a floppy disk.)
1703 - the boot sector of some other operating system.
1705 The image type is determined by the name of the initial variable of the
1706 configuration section.
1708 The image files can reside on any media that is accessible at boot time.
1709 There's no need to put them on the root device, although this certainly
1713 Booting kernel images from a file
1714 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1716 The image is specified as follows: IMAGE=<name>
1722 See sections "Per-image options for kernels" and "Boot image types" for the
1723 options that can be added in a kernel image section.
1726 Booting kernel images from a device
1727 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1729 The range of sectors that should be mapped has to be specified. Either a
1730 range ( <start>-<end> ) or a start and a distance ( <start>+<number> ) have
1731 to be specified. <start> and <end> are zero-based. If only the start is
1732 specified, only that sector is mapped.
1734 The image is specified as follows: IMAGE=<device_name> Additionally, the
1735 RANGE variable must be set.
1742 All kernel options can also be used when booting the kernel from a device.
1745 Booting a foreign operating system
1746 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1748 LILO can even boot other operating systems, i.e. MS-DOS. To boot an other
1749 operating system, the name of a loader program, the device or file that
1750 contains the boot sector and the device that contains the partition table
1751 have to be specified.
1753 The boot sector is merged with the partition table and stored in the map
1756 Currently, the loaders chain.b and os2_d.b exist. chain.b simply starts the
1757 specified boot sector.* os2_d.b it a variant of chain.b that can boot OS/2
1758 from the second hard disk. The MAP-DRIVE option has to be used with os2_d.b
1759 to actually swap the drives.
1761 * The boot sector is loaded by LILO's secondary boot loader before
1762 control is passed to the code of chain.b.
1764 The image is specified as follows: OTHER=<device_name> or OTHER=<file_name>
1766 In addition to the options listen in section "Per-image options for
1767 kernels", the following variables are recognized:
1769 CHANGE Change the partition table according to the rules specified in
1770 this CHANGE section. This option is intended for booting systems which
1771 find their partitions by examining the partition table. See section
1772 "Partition type changes" for details.
1773 LOADER=<chain_loader> Specifies the chain loader that should be used. If
1774 it is omitted, /boot/chain.b is used.
1775 MAP-DRIVE=<bios_device_code> Instructs chain.b to installs a resident
1776 driver that re-maps the floppy or hard disk drives. This way, one can
1777 boot any operating system from a hard disk different from the first
1778 one, as long as that operating system uses _only_ the BIOS to access
1779 that hard disk.* This is known to work for PC/MS-DOS.
1781 * So you should be very suspicious if the operating system requires
1782 any specific configuration or even drivers to use the disk it is
1783 booted from. Since there is a general trend to use optimized
1784 drivers to fully exploit the hardware capabilities (e.g.
1785 non-blocking disk access), booting systems from the second disk may
1786 become increasingly difficult.
1788 MAP-DRIVE is followed by the variable TO=<bios_device_code> which
1789 specifies the drive that should effectively be accessed instead of the
1790 original one. The list of mappings is only searched until the first
1791 match is found. It is therefore possible to "swap" drives, see the
1792 second example below.
1793 TABLE=<device> Specifies the device that contains the partition table.
1794 LILO does not pass partition information to the booted operating system
1795 if this variable is omitted. (Some operating systems have other means
1796 to determine from which partition they have been booted. E.g. MS-DOS
1797 usually stores the geometry of the boot disk or partition in its boot
1798 sector.) Note that /sbin/lilo must be re-run if a partition table
1799 mapped referenced with TABLE is modified.
1800 UNSAFE Do not access the boot sector at map creation time. This disables
1801 some sanity checks, including a partition table check. If the boot
1802 sector is on a fixed-format floppy disk device, using UNSAFE avoids the
1803 need to put a readable disk into the drive when running the map
1804 installer. UNSAFE and TABLE are mutually incompatible.
1806 None of these options can be set in the global options section.
1816 loader = /boot/os2_d.b
1826 For floppies and most hard disks, LILO can obtain the disk geometry
1827 information from the kernel. Unfortunately, there are some exotic disks or
1828 adapters which may either not supply this information or which may even
1829 return incorrect information.
1831 If no geometry information is available, LILO reports either the error
1832 geo_query_dev HDIO_GETGEO (dev 0x<number>)
1834 Device 0x<number>: Got bad geometry <sec>/<hd>/<cyl>
1836 If incorrect information is returned, booting may fail in several ways,
1837 typically with a partial "LILO" banner message. In this document, that is
1838 called a "geometry mismatch".
1840 The next step should be to attempt setting the LBA32 or LINEAR
1841 configuration variable or the -L or -l command-line option. If this
1842 doesn't help, the entire disk geometry has to be specified explicitly. Note
1843 that LINEAR doesn't always work with floppy disks.
1845 Another common use of disk sections is if an (E)IDE and a SCSI drive are
1846 used in the same system and the BIOS is configured to use the SCSI drive as
1847 the first drive. (Normally, the (E)IDE drive would be the first drive and
1848 the SCSI drive would be the second one.) Since LILO doesn't know how the
1849 BIOS is configured, it needs to be told explicitly about this arrangement.
1850 (See the second example below.)
1853 Obtaining the geometry
1854 - - - - - - - - - - -
1856 The disk geometry parameters can be obtained by booting MS-DOS and running
1857 the program DPARAM.COM with the hexadecimal BIOS code of the drive as its
1858 argument, e.g. dparam 0x80 for the first hard disk. It displays the number
1859 of sectors per track, the number of heads per cylinder and the number of
1860 cylinders. All three numbers are one-based.
1862 Alternatively, the geometry may also be determined by reading the
1863 information presented by the "setup" section of the ROM-BIOS or by using
1864 certain disk utilities under operating systems accessing the disk through
1868 Specifying the geometry
1869 - - - - - - - - - - - -
1871 Disk geometry parameters are specified in the options section of the
1872 configuration file. Each disk parameter section begins with
1873 DISK=<disk_device>, similar to the way how boot images are specified. It is
1874 suggested to group disk parameter sections together, preferably at the
1875 beginning or the end of the options section.
1877 For each disk, the following variables can be specified:
1879 BIOS=<bios_device_code> Is the number the BIOS uses to refer to that
1880 device. Normally, it's 0x80 for the first hard disk and 0x81 for
1881 the second hard disk. Note that hexadecimal numbers have to begin with
1882 "0x". If BIOS is omitted, LILO tries to "guess" that number.
1883 SECTORS=<sectors> and
1884 HEADS=<heads> specify the number of sectors per track and the number of
1885 heads, i.e. the number of tracks per cylinder. Both parameters have to
1886 be either specified together or they have to be entirely omitted. If
1887 omitted, LILO tries to obtain that geometry information from the
1889 CYLINDERS=<cylinders> Specifies the number of cylinders. This value is
1890 only used for sanity checks. If CYLINDERS is omitted, LILO uses the
1891 information obtained from the kernel if geometry information had to be
1892 requested in order to determine some other parameter. Otherwise,* it
1893 just assumes the number of cylinders to be 1024, which is the cylinder
1894 limit imposed by the BIOS.
1895 INACCESSIBLE Marks the device as inaccessible (for the BIOS). This is
1896 useful if some disks on the system can't be read by the BIOS, although
1897 LILO "thinks" they can. If one accidentally tries to use files located
1898 on such disks for booting, the map installer won't notice and the
1899 system becomes unbootable. The most likely use of INACCESSIBLE is to
1900 prevent repetition after experiencing such a situation once. No other
1901 variables may be specified if a device is configured as INACCESSIBLE.
1903 * I.e. if the BIOS device code, the number of sectors, the number of
1904 heads and the partition start are specified. Note that the number of
1905 cylinders may appear to vary if CYLINDERS is absent and only some of
1906 the partition starts are specified.
1908 Additionally, partition subsections can be added with
1909 PARTITION=<partition_device>. Each partition section can contain only one
1912 START=<partition_offset> Specifies the zero-based number of the start
1913 sector of that partition. The whole disk always has a partition offset
1914 of zero. The partition offset is only necessary when using devices for
1915 which the kernel does not provide that information, e.g. CD-ROMs.
1924 partition = /dev/sda1
1926 partition = /dev/sda2
1928 partition = /dev/sda3
1930 partition = /dev/sda4
1939 Partition table manipulation
1940 ----------------------------
1942 Some non-Linux operating systems obtain information about their partitions
1943 (e.g. their equivalent of the root file system) from the partition table.
1944 If more than one such operating system is installed on a PC, they may have
1945 conflicting interpretations of the content of the partition table. Those
1946 problems can be avoided by changing the partition table, depending on which
1947 operating system is being booted.
1949 Partition table changes are specified in a CHANGE section in the
1950 configuration file section describing the foreign operating system. Note
1951 that CHANGE sections are only accepted if the build-time option
1952 REWRITE_TABLE is set.
1954 The CHANGE section contains subsections for each partition whose table
1955 entry needs to be modified. Partitions are specified with
1956 PARTITION=<device_name>
1958 Changes are applied in the sequence in which they appear in the
1959 configuration file. Configurations containing changes that are redundant
1960 either by repeating a previous change or by changing its result further are
1961 invalid and refused by the map installer.
1963 Internally, all changes are expressed as rules which specify the location
1964 (disk and offset in the partition table), the value this location must
1965 contain before the change, and the value that has to be stored. As a safety
1966 measure, the rule is ignored if the previous value is found to be
1970 Partition activation
1973 This option is intended for booting systems which determine their boot
1974 partition by examining the active flag in the partition table. The flag is
1975 enabled with ACTIVATE and disabled with DEACTIVATE. Note that only the
1976 current partition is affected. LILO does not automatically change the
1977 active flags of other partitions and it also allows more than one partition
1978 to be active at the same time.
1985 partition = /dev/sda4
1987 partition = /dev/sda3
1991 Partition type change rules
1992 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1994 Partition type changes are normally a transition between two possible
1995 values, e.g. a typical convention is to set the lowest bit in the upper
1996 nibble of the partition type (i.e. 0x10) in order to "hide", and to clear
1997 it to "unhide" a partition. LILO performs these changes based on a set of
1998 rules. Each rule defines the name of a partition type, its normal value,
1999 and the value when hidden. Those rules are defined in the options section
2000 of the configuration file. The section defining them begins with
2003 The following options and variables can appear in the section:
2005 RESET Removes all previously defined rules. This is needed if a user
2006 doesn't wish to use the pre-defined rules (see below).
2007 TYPE=<name> Adds a rule for the type with the specified name. Type names
2008 are case-insensitive. The values are defined with NORMAL=<byte> and
2009 HIDDEN=<byte>. Values can be specified as decimal or as hexadecimal
2010 numbers with a leading 0x . If only one of the values is present, the
2011 other value is assumed to be the same number, but with the most
2012 significant bit inverted.
2014 LILO pre-defines rules for the three partition types of DOS partitions. The
2015 following example removes the pre-defined rules and creates them again:
2023 normal = 4 # hidden is 0x14
2028 Partition type changes
2029 - - - - - - - - - - -
2031 Partition type changes are specified in the partition section as
2032 SET=<name>_<state>, where <name> is the name of the partition type, and
2033 <state> is its state, i.e. NORMAL or HIDDEN.
2040 partition = /dev/sda2
2041 set = dos16_big_normal
2042 partition = /dev/sda3
2044 set = DOS16_big_normal
2046 Only one SET variable is allowed per partition section. In the rare event
2047 that more than one SET variable is needed, further partition sections can
2051 Keyboard translation
2052 --------------------
2054 The PC keyboard emits so-called scan codes, which are basically key
2055 numbers. The BIOS then translates those scan codes to the character codes
2056 of the characters printed on the key-caps. By default, the BIOS normally
2057 assumes that the keyboard has a US layout. Once an operating system is
2058 loaded, this operating system can use a different mapping.
2060 At boot time, LILO only has access to the basic services provided by the
2061 BIOS and therefore receives the character codes for an US keyboard. It
2062 provides a simple mechanism to re-map the character codes to what is
2063 appropriate for the actual layout.*
2065 * The current mechanism isn't perfect, because it sits on top of the
2066 scan code to character code translation performed by the BIOS. This
2067 means that key combinations that don't produce any useful character on
2068 the US keyboard will be ignored by LILO. The advantage of this approach
2072 Compiling keyboard translation tables
2073 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2075 LILO obtains layout information from the keyboard translation tables Linux
2076 uses for the text console. They are usually stored in
2077 /usr/lib/kbd/keytables. LILO comes with a program keytab-lilo.pl that reads
2078 those tables and generates a table suitable for use by the map installer.
2079 keytab-lilo.pl invokes the program loadkeys to print the tables in a format
2080 that is easy to parse.*
2082 * On some systems, only root can execute loadkeys. It is then necessary
2083 to run keytab-lilo.pl as root too.
2085 keytab-lilo.pl is used as follows:
2087 keytab-lilo.pl [ -p <old_code>=<new_code> ] ...
2088 [<path>]<default_layout>[.<extension>] ]
2089 [<path>]<kbd_layout>[.<extension>] ]
2091 -p <old_code>=<new_code>
2092 Specifies corrections ("patches") to the mapping obtained from the
2093 translation table files. E.g. if pressing the upper case "A" should
2094 yield an at sign, -p 65=64 would be used. The -p option can be
2095 repeated any number of times. The codes can also be given as
2096 hexadecimal or as octal numbers if they are prefixed with 0x or 0,
2098 <path> The directory in which the file resides. The default path is
2099 /usr/lib/kbd/keytables.
2100 <extension> Usually the trailing .map, which is automatically added if
2101 the file name doesn't contain dots.
2102 <default_layout> Is the layout which specifies the translation by the
2103 BIOS. If none is specified, us is assumed.
2104 <kbd_layout> Is the actual layout of the keyboard.
2106 keytab-lilo.pl writes the resulting translation table as a binary string to
2107 standard output. Such tables can be stored anywhere with any name, but the
2108 suggested naming convention is /boot/<kbd>.ktl ("Keyboard Table for Lilo"),
2109 where <kbd> is the name of the keyboard layout.
2113 keytab-lilo.pl de >/boot/de.ktl
2116 Using keyboard translation tables
2117 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2119 The keyboard translation table file is specified with the global
2120 configuration option keytable=<table_file> . The complete name of the file
2125 keytable = /boot/de.klt
2128 Installation and updates
2129 ========================
2135 This section describes the installation of LILO. See section "LILO
2136 de-installation" for how to uninstall LILO.
2142 The kernel header files have to be in /usr/include/linux and the kernel
2143 usually has to be configured by running make config before LILO can be
2146 /bin/sh has to be a real Bourne shell. bash is sufficiently compatible, but
2147 some ksh clones may cause problems.
2149 A file named INCOMPAT is included in the distribution. It describes
2150 incompatibilities to older versions of LILO and may also contain further
2151 compatibility notes.
2157 If you want to install LILO on your hard disk and if you don't want to use
2158 all its features, you can use the quick installation script. Read QuickInst
2161 QuickInst can only be used for first-time installations or to entirely
2162 replace an existing installation, _not_ to update or modify an existing
2163 installation of LILO. Be sure you've extracted LILO into a directory that
2164 doesn't contain any files of other LILO installations.
2170 Some of the files contained in lilo-21.tar.gz:
2173 This documentation in plain ASCII format. Some sections containing
2174 complex tables are only included in the LaTeX version in doc/user.tex
2176 List of incompatibilities to previous versions of LILO.
2180 The version number of the respective release.
2182 Quick installation script.
2183 lilo/lilo-<version>.lsm
2184 The LSM ("Linux Software Map") entry of the respective LILO release.
2186 Makefile to generate everything else.
2188 LILO map installer C source and common header files.
2190 LILO boot loader assembler source.
2192 C source of a simple boot partition setter.
2194 Assembler source of a disk parameter dumper.
2196 Shell script used to create the current LILO distribution.
2198 Perl script to generate keyboard translation tables.
2200 Description of how to generate the documentation.
2202 Makefile used to convert the LaTeX source into either DVI output or
2203 the plain ASCII README file.
2205 LaTeX source of LILO's user's guide (this document).
2207 LaTeX source of LILO's technical overview.
2209 Various xfig pictures used in the technical overview.
2210 lilo/doc/fullpage.sty
2211 Style file to save a few square miles of forest.
2213 Shell script that invokes LaTeX repeatedly until all references have
2216 Perl script to convert the LaTeX source of the user's guide to plain
2219 Files created after make in lilo/ (among others):
2222 Combined boot sector. make install puts this file into /boot
2224 Generic chain loader. make install puts this file into /boot
2226 Chain loader to load OS/2 from the second hard disk. make install
2227 puts this file into /boot
2229 LILO (map) installer. make install puts this file into /sbin
2231 Simple boot partition setter.
2233 MS-DOS executable of the disk parameter dumper.
2236 Normal first-time installation
2237 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2239 First, you have to install the LILO files:
2241 - extract all files from lilo-<version>.tar.gz in a new directory.*
2242 - configure the Makefile (see section "Build-time configuration")
2243 - run make to compile and assemble all parts.
2244 - run make install to copy all LILO files to the directories where
2245 they're installed. /sbin should now contain the file lilo, /usr/sbin
2246 should contain keytab-lilo.pl, and /boot should contain boot.b,
2247 chain.b, and os2_d.b.
2249 * E.g. /usr/src/lilo
2251 If you want to use LILO on a non-standard disk, you might have to determine
2252 the parameters of your disk(s) and specify them in the configuration file.
2253 See section "Disk geometry" for details. If you're using such a
2254 non-standard system, the next step is to test LILO with the boot sector on
2257 - insert a blank (but low-level formatted) floppy disk into /dev/fd0.
2258 - run echo image=<kernel_image> |
2259 /sbin/lilo -C - -b /dev/fd0 -v -v -v
2260 If you've already installed LILO on your system, you might not want to
2261 overwrite your old map file. Use the -m option to specify an
2262 alternate map file name.
2263 - reboot. LILO should now load its boot loaders from the floppy disk and
2264 then continue loading the kernel from the hard disk.
2266 Now, you have to decide, which boot concept you want to use. Let's assume
2267 you have a Linux partition on /dev/hda2 and you want to install your LILO
2268 boot sector there. The DOS-MBR loads the LILO boot sector.
2270 - get a working boot disk, e.g. an install or recovery disk. Verify that
2271 you can boot with this setup and that you can mount your Linux
2272 partition(s) with it.
2273 - if the boot sector you want to overwrite with LILO is of any value
2274 (e.g. it's the MBR or if it contains a boot loader you might want to
2275 use if you encounter problems with LILO), you should mount your boot
2276 disk and make a backup copy of your boot sector to a file on that
2277 floppy, e.g. dd if=/dev/hda of=/fd/boot_sector bs=512 count=1
2278 - create the configuration file /etc/lilo.conf, e.g.
2280 <image specification>
2283 Be sure to use absolute paths for all files. Relative paths may cause
2284 unexpected behaviour when using the -r option.
2285 - now, you can check what LILO would do if you were about to install it
2287 /sbin/lilo -v -v -v -t
2288 - if you need some additional boot utility (i.e. BOOTACTV), you should
2290 - run /sbin/lilo to install LILO on your hard disk
2291 - if you have to change the active partition, use fdisk or activate to do
2296 Build-time configuration
2297 - - - - - - - - - - - -
2299 Certain build-time parameters can be configured. They can either be edited
2300 in the top-level Makefile or they can be stored in a file
2301 /etc/lilo.defines. Settings in the Makefile are ignored if that file
2304 The following items can be configured:
2306 BEEP Enables beeping after displaying "LILO". This is useful on
2307 machines which don't beep at the right time when booting and when
2308 working over a serial console. This option is disabled by default.
2309 IGNORECASE Makes image name matching case-insensitive, i.e. "linux"
2310 and "Linux" are identical. This option is enabled by default. Note that
2311 password matching is always case-sensitive.
2312 LARGE_EDBA Loads LILO at a lower address in order to leave more space
2313 for the EBDA (Extended BIOS Data Area). This is necessary on some
2314 recent MP systems. Note that enabling LARGE_EDBA reduces the maximum
2315 size of "small" images (e.g. "Image" or "zImage").
2316 NO1STDIAG Do not generate diagnostics on read errors in the first
2317 stage boot loader. This avoids possibly irritating error codes if the
2318 disk controller has transient read problems. This option is disabled by
2320 NODRAIN The boot loader empties the keyboard buffer when starting,
2321 because it may contain garbage on some systems. Draining the keyboard
2322 buffer can be disabled by setting the NODRAIN option. NODRAIN is
2323 disabled by default.
2324 NOINSTDEF If the option INSTALL is omitted, don't install a new boot
2325 sector, but try to modify the old boot sector instead. This option is
2326 disabled by default.
2327 ONE_SHOT Disables the command-line timeout (configuration variable
2328 TIMEOUT) if any key is pressed. This way, very short timeouts can be
2329 used if PROMPT is set. ONE_SHOT is disabled by default.
2330 READONLY Disallows overwriting the default command line sector of the
2331 map file. This way, command lines set with -R stay in effect until
2332 they are explicitly removed. READONLY also disables LOCK, FALLBACK,
2333 and everything enabled by REWRITE_TABLE . This option is disabled by
2335 REWRITE_TABLE Enables rewriting the partition table at boot time. This
2336 may be necessary to boot certain operating systems who expect the
2337 active flag to be set on their partition or who need changes in
2338 partition types. See also section "Partition table manipulation". This
2339 option is _dangerous_ and it is disabled by default.
2340 USE_TMPDIR Use the directory indicated in the TMPDIR environment
2341 variable when creating temporary device files. If TMPDIR is not set
2342 or if LILO is compiled without USE_TMPDIR , temporary device files are
2343 created in /tmp.* This option is disabled by default.
2344 VARSETUP Enables the use of variable-size setup segments. This option
2345 is enabled by default and is only provided to fall back to fixed-size
2346 setup segments in the unlikely case of problems when using prehistoric
2348 XL_SECS=<sectors> Enable support for extra large (non-standard) floppy
2349 disks. The number of sectors is set in the BIOS disk parameter table to
2350 the specified value. Note that this hack may yield incorrect behaviour
2351 on some systems. This option is disabled by default.
2353 * Note that, while honoring TMPDIR is the "right" thing to do, the
2354 fact that LILO has to create temporary device files at all may indicate
2355 that the operating environment is not completely set up, so TMPDIR
2356 may point to an invalid location.
2358 /etc/lilo.defines should be used if one wishes to make permanent
2359 configuration changes. The usual installation procedures don't touch that
2362 -DIGNORECASE -DONE_SHOT
2364 After changing the build-time configuration, LILO has to be recompiled with
2365 the following commands:
2371 Floppy disk installation
2372 - - - - - - - - - - - -
2374 In some cases*, it may be desirable to install LILO on a floppy disk in a
2375 way that it can boot a kernel without accessing the hard disk.
2377 * E.g. if no hard disk is accessible through the BIOS.
2379 The basic procedure is quite straightforward (see also section "BIOS
2382 - a file system has to be created on the file system
2383 - the kernel and boot.b have to be copied to the floppy disk
2384 - /sbin/lilo has to be run to create the map file
2386 This can be as easy as
2388 /sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0
2389 [ -d /fd ] || mkdir /fd
2393 echo image=/fd/zImage label=linux |
2394 /sbin/lilo -C - -b /dev/fd0 -i /fd/boot.b -c -m /fd/map
2397 The command line of /sbin/lilo is a little tricky. -C - takes the
2398 configuration from standard input (naturally, one could also write the
2399 configuration into a file), -b /dev/fd0 specifies that the boot sector is
2400 written to the floppy disk, -i /fd/boot.b takes the first and second
2401 stage loaders from the floppy, -c speeds up the load process, and -m
2402 /fd/map puts the map file on the floppy too.
2408 LILO is affected by updates of kernels, the whole system and (trivially) of
2409 LILO itself. Typically, only /sbin/lilo has to be run after any of those
2410 updates and everything will be well again (at least as far as LILO is
2417 Before updating to a new version of LILO, you should read at least the file
2418 INCOMPAT which describes incompatibilities with previous releases.
2420 After that, the initial steps are the same as for a first time
2421 installation: extract all files, configure the Makefile, run make to
2422 build the executables and run make install to install the files.
2424 The old versions of boot.b, chain.b, etc. are automatically renamed to
2425 boot.old, chain.old, etc. This is done to ensure that you can boot even if
2426 the installation procedure does not finish. boot.old, chain.old, etc. can
2427 be deleted after the map file is rebuilt.
2429 Because the locations of boot.b, chain.b, etc. have changed and because the
2430 map file format may be different too, you have to update the boot sector
2431 and the map file. Run /sbin/lilo to do this.
2437 Whenever any of the kernel files that are accessed by LILO is moved or
2438 overwritten, the map has to be re-built.* Run /sbin/lilo to do this.
2440 * It is advisable to keep a second, stable, kernel image that can be
2441 booted if you forget to update the map after a change to your usual
2444 The kernel has a make target "zlilo" that copies the kernel to /vmlinuz and
2451 Normally, system upgrades (i.e. installation or removal of packages,
2452 possibly replacement of a large part of the installed binaries) do not
2453 affect LILO. Of course, if a new kernel is installed in the process, the
2454 normal kernel update procedure has to be followed (see section "Kernel
2455 update"). Also, if kernels are removed or added, it may be necessary to
2456 update the configuration file.
2458 If LILO is updated by this system upgrade, /sbin/lilo should be run before
2459 booting the upgraded system. It is generally a good idea not to rely on the
2460 upgrade procedure to perform this essential step automatically.
2462 However, system upgrades which involve removal and re-creation of entire
2463 partitions (e.g. /, /usr, etc.) are different. First, they should be
2464 avoided, because they bear a high risk of losing other critical files, e.g.
2465 the /etc/XF86Config you've spent the last week fiddling with. If an upgrade
2466 really has to be performed in such a brute-force way, this is equal with
2467 total removal of LILO, followed by a new installation. Therefore, the
2468 procedures described in the sections "LILO de-installation" and "LILO
2469 update" have to be performed. If you've forgotten to make a backup copy of
2470 /etc/lilo.conf before the destructive upgrade, you might also have to go
2471 through section "Normal first-time installation" again.
2474 LILO de-installation
2475 --------------------
2477 In order to stop LILO from being invoked when the system boots, its boot
2478 sector has to be either removed or disabled. All other files belonging to
2479 LILO can be deleted _after_ removing the boot sector, if desired.*
2481 * Backup copies of old boot sectors may be needed when removing the boot
2482 sector. They are stored in /boot.
2484 Again, _when removing Linux, LILO must be de-installed before (!) its files
2485 (/boot, etc.) are deleted._ This is especially important if LILO is
2486 operating as the MBR.
2488 LILO 14 (and newer) can be de-installed with lilo -u. If LILO 14 or newer
2489 is currently installed, but the first version of LILO installed was older
2490 than 14, lilo -U may work. When using -U, the warning at the end of this
2493 If LILO's boot sector has been installed on a primary partition and is
2494 booted by the "standard" MBR or some partition switcher program, it can be
2495 disabled by making a different partition active. MS-DOS' FDISK, Linux fdisk
2496 or LILO's activate can do that.
2498 If LILO's boot sector is the master boot record (MBR) of a disk, it has to
2499 be replaced with a different MBR, typically MS-DOS' "standard" MBR. When
2500 using MS-DOS 5.0 or above, the MS-DOS MBR can be restored with FDISK /MBR.
2501 This only alters the boot loader code, not the partition table.
2503 LILO automatically makes backup copies when it overwrites boot sectors.
2504 They are named /boot/boot.<nnnn>, with <nnnn> corresponding to the device
2505 number, e.g. 0300 is /dev/hda, 0800 is /dev/sda, etc. Those backups can
2506 be used to restore the old MBR if no easier method is available. The
2508 dd if=/boot/boot.0300 of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 or
2509 dd if=/boot/boot.0800 of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
2512 _WARNING:_ Some Linux distributions install boot.<nnnn> files from the
2513 system where the distribution was created. Using those files may yield
2514 unpredictable results. Therefore, the file creation date should be
2518 Installation of other operating systems
2519 ---------------------------------------
2521 Some other operating systems (e.g. MS-DOS 6.0) appear to modify the MBR in
2522 their install procedures. It is therefore possible that LILO will stop to
2523 work after such an installation and Linux has to be booted from floppy
2524 disk. The original state can be restored by either re-running /sbin/lilo
2525 (if LILO is installed as the MBR) or by making LILO's partition active (if
2526 it's installed on a primary partition).
2528 It is generally a good idea to install LILO after the other operating
2529 systems have been installed. E.g. OS/2 is said to cause trouble when
2530 attempting to add it to an existing Linux system. (However, booting from
2531 floppy and running /sbin/lilo should get around most interferences.)
2533 Typically, the new operating system then has to be added to LILO's
2534 configuration (and /sbin/lilo has to be re-run) in order to boot it.
2536 See also section "Other problems" for a list of known problems with some
2537 other operating systems.
2543 All parts of LILO display some messages that can be used to diagnose
2547 Map installer warnings and errors
2548 ---------------------------------
2550 Most messages of the map installer (/sbin/lilo) should be self-explanatory.
2551 Some messages that indicate common errors are listed below. They are
2552 grouped into fatal errors and warnings (non-fatal errors).
2558 Boot sector of <device_name> doesn't have a boot signature
2559 Boot sector of <device_name> doesn't have a LILO signature
2560 The sector from which LILO should be uninstalled doesn't appear to be
2562 Can't put the boot sector on logical partition <number>
2563 An attempt has been made to put LILO's boot sector on the current root
2564 file system partition which is on a logical partition. This usually
2565 doesn't have the desired effect, because common MBRs can only boot
2566 primary partitions. This check can be bypassed by explicitly specifying
2567 the boot partition with the -b option or by setting the configuration
2570 The descriptor table of the map file has an invalid checksum. Refresh
2571 the map file _immediately_ !
2572 Device 0x<number>: Configured as inaccessible.
2573 There is a DISK section entry indicating that the device is
2574 inaccessible from the BIOS. You should check carefully that all files
2575 LILO tries to access when booting are on the right device.
2576 Device 0x<number>: Got bad geometry <sec>/<hd>/<cyl>
2577 The device driver for your SCSI controller does not support geometry
2578 detection. You have to specify the geometry explicitly (see section
2580 Device 0x<number>: Invalid partition table, entry <number>
2581 The 3D and linear addresses of the first sector of the specified
2582 partition don't correspond. This is typically caused by partitioning a
2583 disk with a program that doesn't align partitions to tracks and later
2584 using PC/MS-DOS or OS/2 on that disk. LILO can attempt to correct the
2585 problem, see "General per-image options".
2586 Device 0x<number>: Partition type 0x<number> does not seem suitable for
2588 The location where the LILO boot sector should be placed does not seem
2589 to be suitable for that. (See also also section "Disk organization").
2590 You should either adjust the partition type to reflect the actual use
2591 or put the boot sector on a different partition. This consistency check
2592 only yields a warning (i.e. LILO continues) if the option IGNORE-TABLE
2594 <device_name> is not a valid partition device
2595 The specified device is either not a device at all, a whole disk, or a
2596 partition on a different disk than the one in whose section its entry
2598 <device_name> is not a whole disk device
2599 Only the geometry of whole disks (e.g. /dev/hda, /dev/sdb, etc.) can
2600 be redefined when using DISK sections.
2601 DISKTAB and DISK are mutually exclusive
2602 You cannot use a disktab file and disk geometry definitions in the
2603 configuration file at the same time. Maybe /etc/disktab was
2604 accidentally used, because that's the default for
2605 backward-compatibility. You should delete /etc/disktab after completing
2606 the transition to DISK sections.
2607 Duplicate entry in partition table
2608 A partition table entry appears twice. The partition table has to be
2610 Duplicate geometry definition for <device_name>
2611 A disk or partition geometry definition entry for the same device
2612 appears twice in the configuration file. Note that you mustn't write a
2613 partition section for the whole disk - its start sector is always the
2614 first sector of the disk.
2615 First sector of <device> doesn't have a valid boot signature
2616 The first sector of the specified device does not appear to be a valid
2617 boot sector. You might have confused the device name.*
2618 geo_comp_addr: Cylinder <number> beyond end of media (<number>)
2619 A file block appears to be located beyond the last cylinder of the
2620 disk. This probably indicates an error in the disk geometry
2621 specification (see section "Disk geometry") or a file system
2623 geo_comp_addr: Cylinder number is too big (<number> > 1023)
2624 Blocks of a file are located beyond the 1024th cylinder of a hard
2625 disk. LILO can't access such files, because the BIOS limits cylinder
2626 numbers to the range 0...1023. Try moving the file to a different
2627 place, preferably a partition that is entirely within the first 1024
2628 cylinders of the disk.
2629 Hole found in map file (<location>)
2630 The map installer is confused about the disk organization. Please
2632 <item> doesn't have a valid LILO signature
2633 The specified item has been located, but is not part of LILO.
2634 <item> has an invalid stage code (<number>)
2635 The specified item has probably been corrupted. Try re-building LILO.
2636 <item> is version <number>. Expecting version <number>.
2637 The specified entity is either too old or too new. Make sure all parts
2638 of LILO (map installer, boot loaders and chain loaders) are from the
2639 same distribution. **
2640 Kernel <name> is too big
2641 The kernel image (without the setup code) is bigger than 512 kbytes
2642 (or 448 kbytes, if built with LARGE_EDBA ). LILO would overwrite
2643 itself when trying to load such a kernel. This limitation only applies
2644 to old kernels which are loaded below 0x10000 (e.g. "Image" or
2645 "zImage"). Try building the kernel with "bzImage". If this is
2646 undesirable for some reason, try removing some unused drivers and
2647 compiling the kernel again. This error may also occur if the kernel
2648 image is damaged or if it contains trailing "junk", e.g. as the result
2649 of copying an entire boot floppy to the hard disk.
2650 LOCK and FALLBACK are mutually exclusive
2651 Since LOCK and FALLBACK both change the default command line, they
2652 can't be reasonably used together.
2653 Map <path> is not a regular file.
2654 This is probably the result of an attempt to omit writing a map file,
2655 e.g. with -m /dev/null . The -t option should be used to accomplish
2657 Must specify SECTORS and HEADS together
2658 It is assumed that disks with a "strange" number of sectors will also
2659 have a "strange" number of heads. Therefore, it's all or nothing.
2660 No geometry variables allowed if INACCESSIBLE
2661 If a device is configured as INACCESSIBLE (see section "Specifying the
2662 geometry"), its DISK section must not contain any geometry variables.
2663 No image <image> is defined
2664 The command line specified either with the -R option or with
2665 FALLBACK does not contain the name of a valid image. Note that optional
2666 images which have not been included in the map file are not considered
2668 Partition entry not found
2669 The partition from which an other operating system should be booted
2670 isn't listed in the specified partition table. This either means that
2671 an incorrect partition table has been specified or that you're trying
2672 to boot from a logical partition. The latter usually doesn't work. You
2673 can bypass this check by omitting the partition table specification
2674 (e.g. omitting the variable TABLE).
2675 Single-key clash: "<name>" vs. "<name>"
2676 The specified image labels or aliases conflict because one of them is
2677 a single character and has the SINGLE-KEY option set, and the other
2678 name begins with that character.
2679 Sorry, don't know how to handle device <number>
2680 LILO uses files that are located on a device for which there is no
2681 easy way to determine the disk geometry. Such devices have to be
2682 explicitly described, see section "Disk geometry".
2683 This LILO is compiled READONLY and doesn't support ...
2684 If LILO is not allowed to write to the disk at boot time (see section
2685 "Build-time configuration"), options like LOCK and FALLBACK are
2687 This LILO is compiled without REWRITE_TABLE and doesn't support ...
2688 If LILO is not allowed to rewrite partition tables at boot time (see
2689 section "Partition table manipulation"), options like ACTIVATE and SET
2690 (in a CHANGE section) are unavailable. You may also get this error if
2691 LILO is compiled with READONLY enabled.
2692 Timestamp in boot sector of <device> differs from date of <file>
2693 The backup copy of the boot sector does not appear to be an ancestor
2694 of the current boot sector. If you are absolutely sure that the boot
2695 sector is indeed correct, you can bypass this check by using -U
2697 Trying to map files from unnamed device 0x<number> (NFS ?)
2698 This is probably the same problem as described below, only with the
2699 root file system residing on NFS.
2700 Trying to map files from your RAM disk. Please check -r option or ROOT
2701 environment variable.
2702 Most likely, you or some installation script is trying to invoke LILO
2703 in a way that some of the files is has to access reside on the RAM
2704 disk. Normally, the ROOT environment variable should be set to the
2705 mount point of the effective root device if installing LILO with a
2706 different root directory. See also sections "Create or update map" and
2707 "Normal first-time installation".
2708 VGA mode presetting is not supported by your kernel.
2709 Your kernel sources appear to be very old ('93 ?). LILO may work on
2710 your system if you remove the VGA option.
2711 write <item>: <error_reason>
2712 The disk is probably full or mounted read-only.
2714 * Because different partition programs may display the partitions in a
2715 different order, it is possible that what you think is your first
2716 partition isn't /dev/hda1, etc. A good method to verify the content of
2717 a partition is to try to mount it.
2719 ** The expected version number may be different from the version number
2720 of the LILO package, because file version numbers are only increased
2721 when the file formats change.
2727 Messages labeled with "Warning" can be turned off with the NOWARN option.
2729 FIGETBSZ <file_name>: < error_reason>
2730 The map installer is unable to determine the block size of a file
2731 system. It assumes a block size of two sectors (1kB).
2732 Ignoring entry '<variable_name>'
2733 The command-line option corresponding to the specified variable is
2734 set. Therefore, the configuration file entry is ignored.
2735 Setting DELAY to 20 (2 seconds)
2736 Because accidentally booting the wrong kernel or operating system may
2737 be very inconvenient on systems that are not run from a local display,
2738 the minimum delay is two seconds if the SERIAL variable is set.
2739 (temp) <item>: <error_reason>
2740 Deleting a temporary file has failed for the specified reason.
2741 Warning: BIOS drive 0x<number> may not be accessible
2742 Because most BIOS versions only support two floppies and two hard
2743 disks, files located on additional disks may be inaccessible. This
2744 warning indicates that some kernels or even the whole system may be
2746 Warning: COMPACT may conflict with LINEAR on some systems
2747 Please see section "Other problems" for a description of this problem.
2748 Warning: <config_file> should be owned by root
2749 In order to prevent users from compromising system integrity, the
2750 configuration file should be owned by root and write access for all
2751 other users should be disabled.
2752 Warning: <config_file> should be readable only for root if using
2754 Users should not be allowed to read the configuration file when using
2755 the PASSWORD option, because then, it contains unencrypted passwords.
2756 Warning: <config_file> should be writable only for root
2757 See " Warning: <config_file> should be owned by root ".
2758 Warning: device 0x<number> exceeds 1024 cylinder limit
2759 A disk or partition exceeds the 1024 cylinder limit imposed by the
2760 BIOS. This may result in a fatal error in the current installation run
2761 or in later installation runs. See " geo_comp_addr: Cylinder number is
2762 too big (<number> > 1023) " for details.
2763 Warning: <device> is not on the first disk
2764 The specified partition is probably not on the first disk. LILO's boot
2765 sector can only be booted from the first disk unless some special boot
2767 WARNING: The system is unbootable !
2768 One of the last installation steps has failed. This warning is
2769 typically followed by a fatal error describing the problem.
2772 Boot loader messages
2773 --------------------
2775 The boot loader generates three types of messages: progress and error
2776 messages while it is loading, messages indicating disk access errors, and
2777 error messages in response to invalid command-line input. Since messages of
2778 the latter type are usually self-explanatory, only the two other categories
2785 When LILO loads itself, it displays the word "LILO". Each letter is printed
2786 before or after performing some specific action. If LILO fails at some
2787 point, the letters printed so far can be used to identify the problem. This
2788 is described in more detail in the technical overview.
2790 Note that some hex digits may be inserted after the first "L" if a
2791 transient disk problem occurs. Unless LILO stops at that point, generating
2792 an endless stream of error codes, such hex digits do not indicate a severe
2795 (<nothing>) No part of LILO has been loaded. LILO either isn't installed
2796 or the partition on which its boot sector is located isn't active.
2797 L <error> ... The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started,
2798 but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error
2799 codes indicate the type of problem. (See also section "Disk error
2800 codes".) This condition usually indicates a media failure or a geometry
2801 mismatch (e.g. bad disk parameters, see section "Disk geometry").
2802 LI The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot
2803 loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a
2804 geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map
2806 LIL The second stage boot loader has been started, but it can't load
2807 the descriptor table from the map file. This is typically caused by a
2808 media failure or by a geometry mismatch.
2809 LIL? The second stage boot loader has been loaded at an incorrect
2810 address. This is typically caused by a subtle geometry mismatch or by
2811 moving /boot/boot.b without running the map installer.
2812 LIL- The descriptor table is corrupt. This can either be caused by a
2813 geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/map without running the map
2815 LILO All parts of LILO have been successfully loaded.
2821 If the BIOS signals an error when LILO is trying to load a boot image, the
2822 respective error code is displayed. The following BIOS error codes are
2825 0x00 "Internal error". This code is generated by the sector read
2826 routine of the LILO boot loader whenever an internal inconsistency is
2827 detected. This might be caused by corrupt files. Try re-building the
2828 map file. Another possible cause for this error are attempts to access
2829 cylinders beyond 1024 while using the LINEAR option. See section "BIOS
2830 restrictions" for more details and for how to solve the problem.
2831 0x01 "Illegal command". This shouldn't happen, but if it does, it may
2832 indicate an attempt to access a disk which is not supported by the
2833 BIOS. See also "Warning: BIOS drive 0x<number> may not be accessible"
2834 in section "Warnings".
2835 0x02 "Address mark not found". This usually indicates a media problem.
2836 Try again several times.
2837 0x03 "Write-protected disk". This should only occur on write
2839 0x04 "Sector not found". This typically indicates a geometry mismatch.
2840 If you're booting a raw-written disk image, verify whether it was
2841 created for disks with the same geometry as the one you're using. If
2842 you're booting from a SCSI disk or a large IDE disk, you should check,
2843 whether LILO has obtained correct geometry data from the kernel or
2844 whether the geometry definition corresponds to the real disk geometry.
2845 (See section "Disk geometry".) Removing COMPACT may help too. So may
2846 adding LBA32 or LINEAR.
2847 0x06 "Change line active". This should be a transient error. Try
2848 booting a second time.
2849 0x07 "Invalid initialization". The BIOS failed to properly initialize
2850 the disk controller. You should control the BIOS setup parameters. A
2851 warm boot might help too.
2852 0x08 "DMA overrun". This shouldn't happen. Try booting again.
2853 0x09 "DMA attempt across 64k boundary". This shouldn't happen, but may
2854 inicate a disk geometry mis-match. Try omitting the COMPACT option. You
2855 may need to specify the disk geometry yourself.
2856 0x0C "Invalid media". This shouldn't happen and might be caused by a
2857 media error. Try booting again.
2858 0x10 "CRC error". A media error has been detected. Try booting several
2859 times, running the map installer a second time (to put the map file at
2860 some other physical location or to write "good data" over the bad
2861 spot), mapping out the bad sectors/tracks and, if all else fails,
2862 replacing the media.
2863 0x11 "ECC correction successful". A read error occurred, but was
2864 corrected. LILO does not recognize this condition and aborts the load
2865 process anyway. A second load attempt should succeed.
2866 0x20 "Controller error". This shouldn't happen.
2867 0x40 "Seek failure". This might be a media problem. Try booting again.
2868 0x80 "Disk timeout". The disk or the drive isn't ready. Either the
2869 media is bad or the disk isn't spinning. If you're booting from a
2870 floppy, you might not have closed the drive door. Otherwise, trying to
2871 boot again might help.
2872 0xBB "BIOS error". This shouldn't happen. Try booting again. If the
2873 problem persists, removing the COMPACT option or adding/removing LINEAR
2874 or LBA32 might help.
2876 If the error occurred during a write operation, the error code (two hex
2877 digits) is prefixed with a "W". Although write errors don't affect the boot
2878 process, they might indicate a severe problem, because they usually imply
2879 that LILO has tried to write to an invalid location. If spurious write
2880 errors occur on a system, it might be a good idea to configure LILO to run
2881 read-only (see section "Build-time configuration").
2883 Generally, invalid geometry and attempts to use more than two disks without
2884 a very modern BIOS may yield misleading error codes. Please check carefully
2885 if /sbin/lilo doesn't emit any warnings. Then try using the LINEAR or LBA32
2886 option (see section "Global options").
2892 This section contains a collection of less common problems that have been
2893 observed. See also section "Installation of other operating systems" for
2894 general remarks on using LILO with other operating systems. Some of the
2895 problems are obscure and so are the work-arounds.
2897 - If LILO doesn't go away even if you erase its files, format your Linux
2898 partition, etc., you've probably installed LILO as your MBR and you've
2899 forgotten to deinstall it before deleting its files. See section "LILO
2900 de-installation" for what you can do now.
2901 - For yet unknown reasons, LILO may fail on some systems with AMI BIOS if
2902 the "Hard Disk Type 47 RAM area" is set to "0:300" instead of "DOS 1K".
2903 - Some disk controller BIOSes perform disk geometry/address translations
2904 that are incompatible with the way the device's geometry is seen from
2905 Linux, i.e. without going through the BIOS. Particularly, large IDE
2906 disks and some PCI SCSI controllers appear to have this problem. In
2907 such cases, either the translated geometry has to be specified in a
2908 DISK section or the sector address translation can be deferred by using
2909 the LINEAR option. In a setup where floppies are not normally used for
2910 booting, the LINEAR approach should be preferred, because this avoids
2911 the risk of specifying incorrect numbers.
2912 - OS/2 is said to be bootable from a logical partition with LILO acting
2913 as the primary boot selector if LILO is installed on the MBR, the OS/2
2914 BootManager is on an active primary partition and LILO boots
2915 BootManager. Putting LILO on an extended partition instead is said to
2916 crash the OS/2 FDISK in this scenario.
2918 Note that booting LILO from BootManager (so BootManager is the primary
2919 selector) or booting OS/2 directly from a primary partition (without
2920 BootManager) should generally work. See also section "Installation of
2921 other operating systems".
2922 - Windows NT is reported to be bootable with LILO when LILO acts as the
2923 MBR and the Windows NT boot loader is on the DOS partition. However,
2924 NT's disk manager complains about LILO's MBR when trying to edit the
2926 - Some PC UNIX systems (SCO and Unixware have been reported to exhibit
2927 this problem) depend on their partition being active. See section
2928 "Partition table manipulation" for how this can be accomplished.
2929 - Future Domain TMC-1680 adapters with the BIOS versions 3.4 and 3.5
2930 assign BIOS device numbers in the wrong order, e.g. on a two-disk
2931 system, /dev/sda becomes 0x81 and /dev/sdb becomes 0x80 . This can
2932 be fixed with the following DISK section:
2933 disk=/dev/sda bios=0x81 disk=/dev/sdb bios=0x80
2934 Note that this is only valid for a two-disk system. In three-disk
2935 systems, /dev/sdc would become 0x80 , etc. Also, single-disk systems
2936 don't have this problem (and the "fix" would break them).
2937 - Some BIOSes don't properly recognize disks with an unusual partition
2938 table (e.g. without any partition marked active) and refuse to boot
2939 from them. This can also affect the second hard disk and the problem
2940 may only occur if the system is booted in a particular way (e.g. only
2942 - On some systems, using LINEAR and COMPACT or LBA32 and COMPACT together
2943 leads to a boot failure. The exact circumstances under which this
2944 happens are still unknown.
projects / rrq / maintain_lilo.git / blob