[techtalk] LILO problems

David Merrill david at lupercalia.net
Wed Mar 7 12:52:08 EST 2001


On Wed, Mar 07, 2001 at 11:30:41AM -0500, A Kozic wrote:
> I've got my laptop set to dual boot RedHat & Win98, with linux as the
> default. My boyfriend uses the computer to play windows-specific games,
> and very frequently he isn't paying attention to the computer when it
> boots, so it goes into linux. This is a real pain for him, and a few times
> he's turned the power off while it was booting because he didn't want to
> wait.
> 
> I have tried editing the lilo.conf file, but it doesn't seem to be
> acknowledging my changes. Setting default=dos does nothing, but
> all changes I make seem to do nothing. For example I have tried changing
> the lable of other partition from "dos" to "Windows" or "win" or "DOS". I
> reboot, and lilo still says "linux, dos".
> 
> When I look at the file again, my changes have been saved.
> 
> Is there possibly more than one copy of lilo.conf? Can other settings
> elsewhere override it?

This is a very common mistake to make, so don't feel too bad.

You have to run `lilo' to make the changes in lilo.conf actually
effective. Remember, when your lilo boot loader runs, you may not even
have access to the lilo.conf file, depending on your partitioning
scheme. By running `lilo', you place the configuration information
in lilo.conf actually on your lilo boot sector, so lilo can use it on
boot. I think, somebody will scream if I'm too far off on that point.
But regardless, you have to run `lilo' to make the changes effective;
of that, I'm sure.

hth,

-- 
Dr. David C. Merrill                     http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org
                                       Finger me for my public key

Systems programmers are the high priests of a low cult.
		-- R.S. Barton




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