Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 Reference Manual

Also see for ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - SECURITY GUIDE: Tuning guide Installation guide Installation guide Installation guide Manual

Contents

Chapter 2. Boot Loaders 212.9.1. Sample /etc/lilo.confThe following is a sample /etc/lilo.conf for a system configured to boot two operating systems,Red Hat Enterprise Linux and DOS:boot=/dev/hdamap=/boot/mapinstall=/boot/boot.bprompttimeout=50message=/boot/messagelba32default=linuximage=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.0-0.43.6label=linuxinitrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.0-0.43.6.imgread-onlyroot=/dev/hda5other=/dev/hda1label=dosThe following is a more detailed look at the lines of this file:• boot=/dev/hda — Instructs LILO to be installed on the first hard disk of the first IDE controller.• map=/boot/map — Locates the map file. In normal use, this should not be modified.• install=/boot/boot.b — Instructs LILO to install the specified file as the new boot sector. Innormal use, this should not be altered. If the install line is missing, LILO assumes a default of/boot/boot.b as the file to be used.• prompt — Instructs LILO to show you whatever is referenced in the message line. While it is notrecommended that you remove the prompt line, if you do remove it, you can still access a promptby holding down the [Shift] key while your machine starts to boot.• timeout=50 — Sets the amount of time that LILO waits for user input before proceeding withbooting the default line entry. This is measured in tenths of a second, with 50 as the default.• message=/boot/message — Refers to the screen that LILO displays to let you select the oper-ating system or kernel to boot.• lba32 — Describes the hard disk geometry to LILO. Another common entry here is linear. Youshould not change this line unless you are very aware of what you are doing. Otherwise, you couldput your system in an unbootable state.• default=linux — Refers to the default operating system for LILO to boot as seen in the optionslisted below this line. The name linux refers to the label line below in each of the boot options.• image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.0-0.43.6 — Specifies which Linux kernel to boot with this par-ticular boot option.• label=linux — Names the operating system option in the LILO screen. In this case, it is also thename referred to by the default line.• initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.0-0.43.6.img — Refers to the initial ram disk image that is usedat boot time to initialize and start the devices that makes booting the kernel possible. The initial ramdisk is a collection of machine-specific drivers necessary to operate a SCSI card, hard drive, or anyother device needed to load the kernel. You should never try to share initial ram disks betweenmachines.