New Lilo to solve the 1024 cylinder problem

Support knowledgebase (new_lilo)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.0
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

lilo: Version 21.6

Request:

You want to make use of new Lilo's ability to boot of a partition from above 1024 cylinders.

Procedure:

Download the new Lilo from our FTP server:

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/a1/lilo.rpm

Replace the old lilo with the new one by using the command (assuming that the downloaded file lilo.rpm resides in the current working directory):

  rpm -Uhv --force lilo.rpm

In order to make use of the new features of Lilo you have to edit the file /etc/lilo.conf:

Please add the following line in the global section of lilo.conf:

  lba32

In case there already is an entry linear, this will have to be removed or "hidden" as a comment since linear and lba32 are mutually exclusive. After calling lilo to install the new boot loader, it should be possible to boot from above 1024 cylinders. This new feature of Lilo requires a current BIOS (post 1998) since Lilo uses BIOS calls to access the harddisk and older BIOS versions don't implement the ability to reach beyond the 1024 cylinder limit.

If you want to make use of the boot menu, please add the following two lines to the global section:

  install = /boot/boot-menu.b
  menu-title = "SuSE Linux 7.0"

Another new feature of this version of Lilo is, that the tool memtest86, can be directly integrated as a boot option into the lilo menu. If you want this (to test your hardware), please add the following at the bottom of the file /etc/lilo.conf:

  image = /boot/memtest.bin
    label = memtest86

Be aware, that this collides with an (initrd = ...) line in the global section. If you want to make use of an initial ramdisk you will instead have to define an initrd for each Linux kernel:

  image = /boot/vmlinuz
    initrd = /boot/initrd
     .
     .

Finally you will have to install Lilo by issuing the command lilo.

Please also read the documentation in /usr/share/doc/packages/lilo/ .

Since this version of Lilo is not part of the SuSE Linux 7.0 distribution (it will be for the upcoming version of SuSE Linux), this will not be covered by the free installation support. Nevertheless we are very interested to get your feedback on this.


Keywords: LILO, 1024, BOOT

Categories: LILO

SDB-new_lilo, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 01. Dez 2000
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 09. Apr 2001 by hmeyer (sdb_gen 1.40.0)