LILO: The Linux Loader
In addition to booting Linux, LILO can boot other operating systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/ME, or any of the BSD systems. During installation, the major Linux distributions provide the opportunity to install LILO; it can also be installed later if necessary. LILO can be installed on the MBR of your hard drive or as a secondary boot loader on the Linux partition. LILO consists of several pieces, including the boot loader itself, a configuration file (/etc/lilo.conf), a map file (/boot/map) containing the location of the kernel, and the lilo command (/sbin/lilo), which reads the configuration file and uses the information to create or update the map file and to install the files LILO needs.
One thing to remember about LILO is that it has two aspects: the boot loader and the lilo command. The lilo command configures and installs the boot loader and updates it as necessary. The boot loader is the code that executes at system boot time and boots Linux or another operating system.
The LILO Configuration File
The lilo command reads the LILO configuration file, /etc/lilo.conf , to get the information it needs to install LILO. Among other things, it builds a map file containing the locations of all disk sectors needed for booting.
Note that any time you change /etc/lilo.conf or rebuild or move a kernel image, you need to rerun lilo to rebuild the map file and update LILO.
The configuration file starts with a section of global options, described in the next section. ...