When I boot using lilo, I believe that lilo refers to the lilo.conf file to determine what kernel to boot. I also believe that, if I have attached my hd's to the ATA 100 channel, that info needs to be contained within my lilo.conf

But, when I boot from a floppy, I am not clear about what the system uses to determine what kernel to boot.

Here is my lilo.conf:
-----------------------------------------------
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear

default=linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hda5
append="hdd=ide-scsi"

image=/boot/mykernel-2.4.2
label=new
root=/dev/hde5
append="ide2=0x9400, 0x9002 ide3=0x8800, 0x8402"

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=dos
-------------------------------------------------

Here is syslinux.cft on my /dev/fd0 floppy

-------------------------------------------------

default new
prompt 1
display boot.msg
timeout 100
label new
kernel mykernel-2.4.2
append root=/dev/hde5

--------------------------------------------------

Questions:
[list=1][*]When I boot using a floppy, does /etc/linux.conf get used at all?[*]If linux.conf does not get used, how does the system know that it should go to the ATA 100 channel to find the HD?[*]Can I have more than one append entry? Can I add another append entry, e.g., append="ide2=0x9400, 0x9002 ide3=0x8800, 0x8402"?[*]Should the append command in my syslinux.cft have something other than 'append root=/dev/hde5?
[/list=1]

I don't know too much about this. But here goes.

When lilo boots off your hard drive, it doesn't read your lilo.conf. If you have ever made changes to lilo.conf, you know that you have to run lilo after you make the changes, or the changes don't take effect. That's because, when you run lilo, it reads its lilo.conf file and makes any changes that it needs too. If you don't run lilo after making changes, it will act like you didn't make any changes and wiil boot up like it did before.

As for knowing which kernel to use, it stores that info when you run lilo. So, when you type in the name of the kernel at the lilo boot prompt, it has the info stored in it so that it can find and load that kernel. Including the root partition location, appends, and that it should be mounted read-only.

Looking at your floppy info, I see that you get a prompt and a message is displayed for I believe 10 seconds if you don't press any keys. If you don't press any keys, it will boot into the default image which is ' new ' and ' new ' is the image named ' mykernel-2.4.2. That kernel image is probably on the boot disk. If you look around some more, you might find a file named ' mykernel-2.4.2 '.

Q1. No.
Q2. When the lilo program is run on the hard drive, it processes the lilo.conf file and writes the info it needs to the places that allow it to boot and find the kernel and anything else it needs.
Q3. I don't know. It does seem that it is possible. You could try this with a copy of your boot disk.


default new
prompt 1
display boot.msg
timeout 100
label new
kernel mykernel-2.4.2
append root=/dev/hde5
append ide2=0x9400, 0x9002 ide3=0x8800, 0x8402


Make sure you use a copy of you disk.

Q4. That's all it needs. The read-only part has been programed into it by lilo when you ran lilo after making changes to lilo.conf.

I hope this helps some.