At 02:03 PM 11/23/02 -0500, neil t wrote: [...]
Is there a standard format for adding other linux distro's to /etc/lilo.conf?The concept of a "distro" is meaningless to lilo (either the Linux app or the bootloader itself). lilo knows about kernels, boot devices, root filesystems, and a few other things. In practice, a kernel selection is enough to distinguish a distribution, usually.
A basic lilo block includes these lines --
image=/vmlinuz
root=/dev/hda2
label=Linux-2.2.18
read-only
The image= line tells lilo where to find the kernel that will boot. The location is specified relative to the root filesystem that is running, and lilo will pass it to the bootloader as a physical location on a physical hard disk. Putting kernels in a /boot partition (which can be a separate filesystem) is a custom, nothing more, albeit a well-established custom. Newer versions of lilo can boot kernels from any device the BIOS can see, not just from the primary IDE (or corresponding SCSI) device. But in any given /etc/lilo.conf, ALL kernel images need to be referenced relative to the root filesystem that is currently running.
This is one of the reasons why the /boot directory, done as a separate filesystem, becaome customary. (The other was to deal with the 1024-cylinder problem, not only of historical interest.) If you made a smal partition on hda, then mounted it as /boot on EVERY distro, plus exercised a bit of care about kernel names, you could keep the kernels for all the distros you wanted to boot in the same place, simplifying updates.
The root= line tells lilo what the root (/) filesystem is for that distro. The usual practice in my experience is to name them following /dev directory entries; I am unfamiliar with the approach the other writer suggests.
The label= line tells lilo what to call in in the choices for booting (which appear in the "lilo gui" or on the command line if you press the appropriate key, I think SHIFT, before the lilo bootloader starts to boot).
The read-only line is a parameter that tells the kernel first to mount filesystems read-only. This allows for initial fsck of them. It is optional but a good idea.
Also somewhere in lilo.conf will be a boot= line, typically boot=/dev/hda . This line tells lilo where to install the bootloader.
In closing, please let me warn you to watch out for small errors of detail in what I've written here. I'm writing mostly from memory .. I don't have a multi-distro setup here to consult ... and my memory is not what it once was.
One of replies to my question explains it this way:
"It does not really make any differance which system installed lilo, the
secret is mounting all your disks/partitions where "lilo" can reach them all in one go, you can define any partition "in use or not" as long as it is mounted.
An example;
dos = hda1
redhat = hda5
mandrake = hdc1
slackware = hdd1
You boot with mandrake, you then create some extra dirs'
mkdir /hda5
mkdir /hdc1
mkdir /hdd1
mount -t ext2 /dev/hda5 /hda5
mount -t ext2 /dev/hdd1 /hdd1
Edit /etc/lilo and reflect the above
image = image-redhat
label = redhat
root = /hda5/boot/image-redhat
read-only
same idea for slack.
run lilo with -t to check that all is ok, when all is ok /sbin/lilo
reboot
Another way is to copy all bootable images into one /boot dir and edit
lilo.conf accordingly."
I have seen some say:
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.0-ide pci<<<<<< is it /boot because all bootable
images are in /boot?
label=Debian (example)
read-only
root=/dev/hdd1
Anyway....again thanks for helping me with this.....
-- -------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"-------- Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
