Hey All,

I noticed that there wasn't a tutorial for Lilo. Most tutorials mention about Grub or Bootmagic, but not Lilo. Also, I know the newer installements of Linux has a program where you can config the lilo (Like Bootmagic Manager) but figured I'd write a tutorial "old school" way

--*=Lilo (LInux LOader) Editing=*--------------------------


Lilo is what most Linux flavours have as a boot manager in your main boot sector. This is what you tell if you have Linux and Windows on one computer and which one is default. This tool is useful to have to tell your computer how many OS's you have in your box, as well as what can and cannot be accessed. However, Lilo is starting to get a little old and weak, as well as useless due to today's newer harddrives, but Lilo is still the default loader. Here are some of the commands for Lilo and how to take full control of the loader.


--Lilo.conf Breakdown--

There are three ways to edit Lilo: /etc/lilo.conf, lilo command and boot prompt. The best way however is to edit lilo.conf in the /etc directory with a text editor. This file is very
simple to understand, even for newbies! Before you edit lilo.conf, you'd be best to make a floppy back-up as well as a Linux boot floppy. Most parameters are equations, meaning the is a setting with an = sign waiting for a command or path.
There are three groups in Lilo (called stanzas): Global, Kernel and Non-Linux. Global
holds parameters that are general to booting, like timeout. Kernel is strickly dedicated to the
Linux partition. Non-Linux is where you tell Lilo that Windows or Dos is on the computer as well.

Here's a breakdown of Lilo:

-*=global=*-
boot -lilo's location (ie: /etc/lilo.conf)
map= -path to lilo's map (ie: /boot/map)
default= -defines which OS is default
timeout= -how much time lilo waits before loading default OS. (50 = 5 seconds, 0/1)
prompt

-*=kernel=*-
image= -path to the kernel (linux partition location) (ie: /vmlinuz or /boot/vmlinuz)
label= -name of the OS - up to 12 characters but no spaces (ie: Linux)
read-only

-*=non-linux=*-
other= -path to the other OS (windows or other partition location) (ie: /dev/hda1)
label= -name of OS - up to 12 characters, no spaces (ie: Windows98, WindowsNT4)
table= -hard drive that the other OS is on (ie: /dev/hda)


--Lilo Extra Commands--

Want to add a message when lilo boots? It will be above the lilo menu or lilo prompt. Just write whatever you want in a text editor and save the file. Then put a "message=" string with the location of the file and the end of the = sign in the global stanza.

message=/boot/message.doc

--EOF--

Hope that helps someone!