'\" t
-.\" @(#)lilo.conf.5 1.0 950728 aeb
+.\" @(#)lilo.conf.5
.\" This page is based on the lilo docs, which carry the following
.\" COPYING condition:
.\"
.\" Copyright 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger.
.\" Extensions to LILO, documentation and auxiliary programs are
.\" Copyright 1999-2005 John Coffman.
+.\" Extensions to LILO, documentation and auxiliary programs are
+.\" Copyright 2009-2011 Joachim Wiedorn.
+.\"
.\" All rights reserved by the respective copyright holders.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms of parts of or the
.\" this software without specific prior written permission. This work
.\" is provided "as is" and without any express or implied warranties.
.\"
-.TH LILO.CONF 5 "April 2011"
+.TH LILO.CONF 5 "June 2013"
.SH NAME
lilo.conf \- configuration file for lilo
.SH DESCRIPTION
This configuration file specifies that lilo uses the Master
Boot Record on /dev/hda. (For a discussion of the various ways
to use lilo, and the interaction with other operating systems,
-see user.tex from the lilo documentation.)
+see html/user_21-5.html inside the old documentation.)
.LP
When booting, the boot loader will issue its
.I "boot:"
-prompt and wait for you to enter the label of the kernel (and any options)
-which you wish to boot. At any time you may hit [Tab] to see
-a list of kernel/other labels.
+prompt and wait for you to enter the label of the kernel (and any
+options) which you wish to boot. At any time you may hit [Tab] to
+see a list of kernel/other labels.
Alternately, if the \fBmenu\fP boot loader is installed,
a menu of boot options will be presented for your selection.
The title of this menu is overridden with the menu
title specification in this configuration file.
-If you enter nothing,
-then the default kernel image, the first mentioned, (/boot/zImage-1.5.99)
-will be booted after a timeout of 15 seconds (150 deciseconds).
-There may be at least 16 images mentioned in lilo.conf. (The exact number depends
-upon compilation options.)
+If you enter nothing, then the default kernel image, the first
+mentioned, (in the example /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29-1-i386) will be
+booted after a timeout of 15 seconds (150 deciseconds). There may
+be at least 16 images mentioned in lilo.conf. (The exact number
+depends upon compilation options.)
.LP
As can be seen above, a configuration file starts with a number
of global options (the top 9 lines in the example),
Comment lines may appear anywhere, and begin with the "#" character.
.SH "GLOBAL OPTIONS"
-There are many possible keywords. The description below is
-almost literally from user.tex (just slightly abbreviated).
+There are many possible keywords. The description below is almost
+literally from html/user_21-5.html inside the old documentation
+(just slightly abbreviated).
.TP
.BI "backup=" <backup-file>
Specifies the location where a copy of any modified boot sector will be
as certain RAID installations may benefit from knowing that the
BIOS is 100% reliable. Its use should be considered experimental.
.sp
-N.B.: This option may not be retained in releases beyond 22.5.1, and
-may be specified on the command line with the '\-Z' switch: yes=1, no=0.
+This option may be specified on the command line with the '\-Z' switch:
+yes=1, no=0.
.TP
.BI "bitmap=" <bitmap-file>
Specifies use of a 640x480x16 (VGA BIOS) or 640x480x256 (VGA/VESA BIOS)
and 'bmp-timer' options together with the 'bitmap' option are stored in
the special LILO header of the bitmap image file by the
.BI "lilo -E"
-+command. Another way works without these special header information: All
-+the information about 'bmp-colors', 'bmp-table' and 'bmp-timer' options
-+together with the 'bitmap' option are stored in the configuration file.
-+Any use of the 'bmp-' options within the configuration file overrides
-+the options stored in the bitmap file header. If lilo cannot find any of
-+the 'bmp-' options, then default values are used.
+command. Another way works without these special header information: All
+the information about 'bmp-colors', 'bmp-table' and 'bmp-timer' options
+together with the 'bitmap' option are stored in the configuration file.
+Any use of the 'bmp-' options within the configuration file overrides
+the options stored in the bitmap file header. If lilo cannot find any of
+the 'bmp-' options, then default values are used.
.TP
.BI "bmp-colors=" <fg>,<bg>,<sh>,<hfg>,<hbg>,<hsh>
Specifies the decimal values of the colors to be used for the menu display
display entirely.
.TP
.BI "boot=" <boot-device>
-Sets the name of the device (e.g. a hard disk partition) that contains
-the boot sector. If this keyword is omitted, the boot sector is read
-from (and possibly written to) the device that is currently mounted as root.
+Sets the name of the device (e.g. hard disk or partition) that contains
+the boot sector and where the new boot sector should be written to. Notice:
+The boot-device should be the device with the currently mounted root partition.
.sp
A raid installation is initiated by specifying a RAID1 device as the boot
-device; e.g., "boot=/dev/md0". Note that LILO version 22.0 and later
-operate differently from earlier versions with respect to the actual
-location of the boot records.
+device; e.g., "boot=/dev/md0".
.sp
On newer systems you need an unique ID for the boot device. If the boot
sector should write to a partition you can use its UUID in the same manner
are used in a
.I change
section (see below), with the suffixes "_normal" or "_hidden" appended.
-See section "Partition type change rules" of user.tex for more details.
+See section "Partition type change rules" of html/user_21-5.html inside
+the old documentation for more details.
.TP
.BI "compact"
Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
This action is modified by specifying `prompt' (see below).
.TP
.BI "disk=" <device-name>
-Defines non-standard parameters for the specified disk.
-See section "Disk geometry" of user.tex for details.
+Defines non-standard parameters for the specified disk. See section
+"Disk geometry" of html/user_21-5.html inside the old documentation for details.
For versions of LILO prior to 22.5, the `bios=' parameter
is quite useful for specifying how the BIOS has assigned
device codes to your disks.
command line parameters to this kernel.
.TP
.BI "addappend=" <string>
-(22.6) The kernel parameters from the specified string, are concatenated to the
+The kernel parameters of this string are concatenated to the
parameter(s) from an
.B "append="
-specification (see below).
-The string must be enclosed within double quotes. Usually, the previous
+option (see below).
+The string of addappend must be enclosed within double quotes.
+Usually, the previous
.B "append="
-will specify parameters common to all kernels by appearing in the top,
-or global, section of the configuration file and
+will set parameters common to all kernels by appearing in the global
+section of the configuration file and
.B "addappend="
will be used to add local parameter(s) to an individual image.
-Addappend= may be used only once per "image=" section.
+The addappend option may be used only once per "image=" section.
+.sp
+If the string is a very long line, this line can be divided
+in more lines using "\\" as last character of a line, e.g.
+.sp
+.nf
+ addappend="noapic acpi=off pci=usepirqmask \\
+ pnpbios=off pnpacpi=off noisapnp"
+.fi
.TP
.BI "append=" <string>
Appends the options specified to the parameter line passed to the kernel.
kernel parameters are separated by a blank space, and the string must be
enclosed in double quotes. A local append= appearing withing an image=
section overrides any
-global append= appearing in the top section of the configuration file.
-Append= may be used only once per "image="
+global append= appearing in the global section of the configuration file.
+The append option may be used only once per "image="
section. To concatenate parameter strings, use "addappend=". Example:
.sp
.nf
append="mem=96M hd=576,64,32 console=ttyS1,9600"
.fi
.sp
+If the string is a very long line, this line can be divided in more lines
+using "\\" as last character of a line. See example of addappend option.
.TP
.BI "initrd=" <name>
Specifies the initial ramdisk image to be loaded with the kernel. The
is used, the root device is set to the device on which the root file
system is currently mounted. If the root has been changed with \-r ,
the respective device is used. If the variable `root' is omitted,
-the root device setting contained in the kernel image is used.
-(And that is set at compile time using the ROOT_DEV variable in
-the kernel Makefile, and can later be changed with the rdev(8) program.)
+the root device setting contained in the running kernel image is used.
+Warning: This can induce to an unbootable system!
.sp
The root filesystem may also be specified by a
.B LABEL=
Note that /sbin/lilo must be re-run if a partition table mapped referenced
with `table' is modified.
.TP
-.BI "table=" <drive-letter>
-This option is obsolete. It were used in the special case with the obsolete
-.I os2_d
-chain loader.
-.TP
.BI "change"
This keyword starts a section which describes how primary partition IDs are
changed, and how primary partitions are activated and deactivated. If
projects / rrq / maintain_lilo.git / blobdiff