/sbin/lilo -q
- query map
/sbin/lilo -T
- tell more about specified topic
/sbin/lilo -R
- set default command line for next reboot
/sbin/lilo -A
- activate/show active partition
/sbin/lilo -E
- edit header or update a bitmap file
/sbin/lilo -M
- write a Master Boot Record on a device
/sbin/lilo -I
- inquire path name of current kernel
/sbin/lilo {-u|-U}
- uninstall LILO boot loader
DESCRIPTION
lilo
installs a boot loader that will be activated next time you boot.
It has lots of options.
-A master-device [ N ]
Inquire of active partition on device
master-device;
e.g., "/dev/hda". With a number in the range 1 to 4, activate the specified
partition on the master device.
-b bootdev
Specify the boot device; i.e., where the boot loader will be installed.
"-b /dev/hda" specifies the Master Boot Record; "-b /dev/sdb5" specifies
the first extended partition on the second SCSI disk.
-B bitmap-file
Specify a bitmap file for the boot-time graphics screen.
-c
Enable map compaction. This will merge read requests from adjacent
sectors. Speeds up the booting (especially from floppy).
-C config-file
lilo
reads its instructions about what files to map from the specified
configuration file. This option overrides the use of the default config
file,
/etc/lilo.conf.
-d delay
Specifies the delay time in tenths of a second (20 = 2 sec) before
automatically booting the first image. Gives you time to interrupt the
automatic boot process with Shift, Alt, Ctrl, ScrollLock, or CapsLock. If
interrupted, the `boot:' prompt is displayed. This switch is overriden by
the appearance of
prompt
in the config-file.
-D label
Use the kernel with the given label, instead of the first one
in the list, as the default kernel to boot.
-E filename.ext
If .ext is .bmp, then take the file to be a bitmap graphic file for use
in the "bitmap=" configuration file directive. Enter an interactive
editor to create or update the color/placement information in the
bitmap file LILO header.
If .ext is .dat, then take the file to be a configuration file which
specifies bitmap graphic parameters, which are transferred into the LILO
header in the bitmap file of the same name.
-f disk-tab
Specify disk geometry parameter file. (The default is
/etc/disktab.)
-F
Override boot sector check for filesystems (e.g., swap, XFS, ...) which might be
destroyed by the installation of the LILO boot sector on the first sector of
the partition. These filesystems use the first sector as a superblock.
Compare with "-P ignore", which bypasses certain partition table checks.
-g
Generate cylinder/head/sector (geometric) disk addresses. Limited to
cylinders up to 1023. Forces compatibility with older versions of LILO.
-i boot-loader
Specify a file to be used as the new boot loader. (The default is
/boot/boot.b.)
-I label[i|r]
The label of the running kernel can be found in the environment
variable BOOT_IMAGE after startup, or in the pseudo-file `/proc/cmdline'.
This command will print path name of the corresponding kernel file, keytable
file, or of
any initial ramdisk file ("i", "k", or "r" option).
-l
Generate 24-bit linear sector addresses instead of cylinder/head/sector
addresses.
-L
Generate 32-bit Logical Block Addresses instead of cylinder/head/sector
addresses, allowing
access to all partitions on disks with more than 1024 cylinders.
-m map-file
Use specified map file instead of the default.
-M master-device [ mbr-file ]
Install a Master Boot Record on the device specified as
master-device.
The new MBR is copied by default from "mbr.b", which
is built into
/sbin/lilo
(version 22.3), unless a specific
file is named as the second argument. The primary partition table on
master-device
is undistrubed. If no device serial number is present, then generate one
and write it to the MBR.
-p
Require interactive entry of all passwords specified as
in the configuration file.
-P {fix|ignore}
Fix or ignore `corrupt' partition tables, i.e., partition tables
with linear and cylinder/head/sector addresses that do not correspond.
Always try
-P ignore
first, as
-P fix
will re-write the partition table, possibly destroying all partitions
on the disk.
-P ignore
is also used to bypass the partition table check for partition types within
the partition table which
might not allow the installation of a LILO boot sector. Compare with the
"-F" flag, which overrides the check of the actual boot sector.
-q
List the currently mapped files.
lilo
maintains a file, by default
/boot/map,
containing the name and location of the kernel(s) to boot.
This option will list the names therein. Use with -v for
more detailed information about the installed boot loader.
-r root-directory
Before doing anything else, do a chroot to the indicated
directory. The new root directory must contain a
/dev
directory, and may need a
/boot
directory. It may also need an
/etc/lilo.conf file.
Used by the
mkbootdisk
shell script for creating a bootable floppy.
-R command line
This option sets the default command for the boot loader the next
time it executes. The boot loader will then erase this line: this
is a once-only command. It is typically used in reboot scripts,
just before calling `shutdown -r'. Used without any arguments, it will
cancel a lock-ed or fallback command line.
-s save-file
When
lilo
overwrites the boot sector, it preserves the old contents in
a file, by default
/boot/boot.NNNN
where NNNN depends on the device. This option specifies an
alternate save file for the boot sector. (Or, together with the
-u option, specifies from where to restore the boot sector.)
-S save-file
Normally,
lilo
will not overwrite an existing save file. This options says
that overwriting is allowed.
-t
Test only. Do not really write a new boot sector or map file.
Use together with -v to find out what
lilo
is about to do.
-T option
Print out system information, some of it extracted from the system
bios. This is more convenient than booting the LILO diagnostic
floppy on problem systems.
option
may be any one of the following:
help - print a list of available diagnostics
ChRul - list the partition types subject to
Change-Rules
EBDA - list Extended BIOS Data Area information
geom=<drive> list drive geometry for bios drive;
e.g., geom=0x80
geom - list drive geometry for all drives
table=<drive> list the primary partition table;
e.g., table=/dev/sda
video - list graphic modes available to boot
loader
-u [device-name]
Uninstall lilo by copying the saved boot sector back.
The '-s' and '-C' switches may be used with this option.
The device-name is optional. A time-stamp is checked.
-U [device-name]
Idem, but do not check the time-stamp.
-v
Increase verbosity. Giving one to five -v options
will make lilo more verbose, or use, -vn (n=1..5) to
set verbosity level 'n'.
-V
Print version number.
-w
Suppress warning messages.
-x option
For RAID installations only. The option may be any of the keywords
none,
auto,
mbr-only,
or a comma separated list of additional boot devices (no spaces allowed in
the list).
-X
Reserved for LILO internal use. May produce different
output for different LILO versions. The line beginning "CFLAGS="
will contain the compiler options used to generate this version of LILO.
-z
When used with the -M switch, clears the device serial number. Usually used
in the following sequence to generate a new device serial number:
lilo -z -M /dev/hda
lilo -M /dev/hda
The above command line options correspond to the key words
in the config file indicated below.
-b bootdev
boot=bootdev
-B file.bmp
bitmap=file.bmp
-c
compact
-d dsec
delay=dsec
-D label
default=label
-i boot-loader
install=boot-loader
-f file
disktab=file
-g
geometric
-l
linear
-L
lba32
-m mapfile
map=mapfile
-P fix
fix-table
-P ignore
ignore-table
-s file
backup=file
-S file
force-backup=file
-v [N]
verbose=N
-w
nowarn
-x option
raid-extra-boot=option
BOOT OPTIONS
The options described here may be specified at on the command line when a
kernel image is booted. These options are processed by LILO, and are
removed from the command line passed to the kernel, unless otherwise noted.
lock
Locks the command line, as though 'lock' had been specified in 'lilo.conf.'
mem=###[,K,M]
Specifies the maximum memory in the system in bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes.
This option is not removed from the command line, and is always passed to
the kernel.
nobd
Suppresses collection of BIOS data. This option is reserved for use with
non-IBM-compliant BIOS's which hang with the lines:
Loading...............
BIOS data check
vga=[ASK,EXT,EXTENDED,NORMAL]
Allows overriding the default video mode upon kernel startup.
BOOT ERRORS
The boot process takes place in two stages. The first stage loader is a
single sector, and is loaded by the BIOS or by the loader in the MBR. It
loads the multi-sector second stage loader, but is very space limited. When
the first stage loader gets control, it types the letter "L"; when it is
ready to transfer control to the second stage loader it types the letter
"I". If any error occurs, like a disk read error, it will put out a
hexadecimil error code, and then it will re-try the operation. All hex
error codes are BIOS return values, except for the lilo-generated 40, 99 and 9A.
A partial list of error codes follows:
00 no error
01 invalid disk command
0A bad sector flag
0B bad track flag
20 controller failure
40 seek failure (BIOS)
40 cylinder>1023 (LILO)
99 invalid second stage index sector (LILO)
9A no second stage loader signature (LILO)
AA drive not ready
FF sense operation failed
Error code 40 is generated by the BIOS, or by LILO during the conversion of
a linear (24-bit) disk address to a geometric (C:H:S) address. On older
systems which do not support lba32 (32-bit) addressing, this error may also
be generated. Errors 99 and 9A usually mean the map file (-m or map=) is
not readable, likely because LILO was not re-run after some system change,
or there is a geometry mis-match between what LILO used (lilo -v3 to
display) and what is actually being used by the BIOS (one of the lilo
diagnostic disks, available in the source distribution, may be needed to
diagnose this problem).
When the second stage loader has received control from the first stage, it
prints the letter "L", and when it has initialized itself, including
verifying the "Descriptor Table" - the list of kernels/others to boot - it
will print the letter "O", to form the full word "LILO", in uppercase.
All second stage loader error messages are English text, and try to
pinpoint, more or less successfully, the point of failure.
INCOMPATIBILITIES
lilo
is known to have problems with the
reiserfs
introduced with the 2.2.x kernels, unless the file system is
mounted with the 'notail' option. This incompatibilty has been
resolved with reiserfs 3.6.18 and lilo 21.6.
Beginning with version 22.0, RAID installations write the boot record to
the RAID partition. Conditional writing of MBRs may occur to aid in making
the RAID set bootable in a recovery situation, but all default actions may
be overridden. Action similar to previous versions is
achieved using the `-x mbr-only' switch.
BUGS
Configuration file options `backup' and `force-backup' are not yet correctly
implemented for RAID installations. Use of the default boot record backup
mechanism seems to work okay, and should be used.
