Type the name of the image you want to boot followed by the options that you

want to pass to the kernel.

LILO: linux single

Using the above, I could tell Linux to boot the image linux in single user

mode. I could also use 'linux root=/dev/hda3' to specify another root

partition to use.

Now come the image sections. Options in the global section can be overridden

by options in the image sections. Each section begins with a 'image='

statement that points to the kernel image that you want to boot.

Each image section also contains a 'label' option. This could be anything you

want. It is just what you will type at the LILO prompt to boot that particular

image.

If you need to have a different root for this image or you are trying to boot

another Linux distribution then you will need to specify the 'root' option

here as well as any other option specific to that image.

For more security you could add a password for that image.

password='password'

You can also put in 'restricted' here. You will only be prompted if you want

to enter parameters on the command line. Normal booting of the image will

still take place. This is just to prevent someone from entering a parameter

like 'single' and then booting straight into the prompt.

While LILO can boot other Linux distributions, it can also boot other OS'. The

section for booting another OS is essentially the same as that for the image.

other = /dev/hda3

label = dos

table = /dev/hda

Each section will start with a 'other=' which will point to the partition that

the other OS lies on. As with the image section, there is a label to be given.

The final parameter is table. This should point to the device that contains

the partition table. Definitely required because LILO will take the partition

information from this table and pass it on to the operating system that it is

booting.

Every change to the lilo.conf will require you to re-run /sbin/lilo to ensure

that any changes to the setup are written down. If you update the kernel,

re-create the initrd image you need to re-run LILO.

Lilo resides in /sbin. To run, simply type /sbin/lilo. You should then see

something like the following

Added linux *

Added suse

Added windows

This shows the various images that I have in lilo.conf. The image after

which the '*' is displayed is the default boot image. To change the default