lilo Command Options (Running Linux)

G.4. lilo Command Options

The following list describes the lilo command options. Multiple options are given separately:

% lilo -q -v

-C config-file

Specifies an alternative to the default configuration file (/etc/lilo.conf ). lilo uses the configuration file to determine what files to map when it installs LILO.

-I label

Prints the path to the kernel specified by label to standard output or outputs an error message if no matching label is found. For example:

% lilo -I linux
/boot/vmlinuz-2.0.34-0.6

-q

Lists the currently mapped files. LILO maintains a file, by default /boot/map, containing the name and location of the kernels to boot. Running lilo with this option prints the names of the files in the map file to standard output, as in this example (in which the asterisk indicates that linux is the default):

% lilo -q
linux            *
test

-r root-directory

Specifies that before doing anything else, LILO should chroot to the indicated directory. This option is used for repairing a setup from a boot floppy-you can boot from a floppy but have LILO use the boot files from the hard drive. For example, if you issue the following commands, LILO will get the files it needs from the hard drive:

% mount /dev/hda2 /mnt
% lilo -r /mnt

-R command-line

Sets the default command for the boot loader the next time it executes. The command executes once and then is removed by the boot loader. This option is typically used in reboot scripts, just before calling shutdown -r.

-t

Indicates that this is a test and does not really write a new boot sector or map file. It can be used with -v to find out what LILO would do during a normal run.

-u device-name

Uninstalls LILO by restoring the saved boot sector from /boot/boot.nnnn after validating it against a timestamp. device-name is the name of the device on which LILO is installed, such as /dev/hda2.

-U device-name

Is like -u, but does not check the timestamp.

-v

Specifies verbose output.

-V

Prints the LILO version number.