After installing Mandrake 10, there were a ton of boot options in LILO and my Windows install didn't show up so I manually edited lilo.conf to include my Windows partition and (without thinking about it too much) removed all the Linux options except for just plain 'linux'. However, after noticing that one of those choices was linux-smp, I realize that I make a mistake by not leaving THAT option. Could someone with an unmodified copy of lilo.conf (perhaps a backup copy) please post it for me?

-Brandon

Wait a minute. When I start my computer, at the login screen, it says "Kernel 2.6.3-7mdksmp on a Dual-processor i686". I assume that means that it's already using the SMP kernel. Do I actually need the "linux-smp" boot option in LILO?

-Brandon

PS - And speaking of kernel versions, any idea when Mandrake Update will have the 2.6.6 kernel? According to kernel.org, it's stable already.

If you didn't actually run lilo after setting the options in lilo.conf then no changes were made to the system. You should see /etc/lilo.conf~ now which is the backup of the original file. Just copy it back to lilo.conf and add the Windows partition. You need the smp kernel if you have a multi-CPU system.

The 2.6.6 kernel itself may be stable but it hasn't been fully tested with MDK packages. 2.6.8 or 2.6.9 will probably be out before MDK upgrades to 2.6.6. You know what I'm getting at? ...I'm sure 2.6.3 will work for you just fine. Having the latest kernel for the sake of just that is not necessarily a good thing but if you're in a rush, you can compile 2.6.6 yourself.

In yor file manager open the etc directory .In here you should find the lilo config file the liloconfig old should be your original before you deleted. You should be able to rename liloconfig to old & liloconfigold to liloconfig. In answer to your question you do not need the other kernels if your happy with the one you have. You may have to be root to modify files . Please be carefull

Regards Sharkee

I've been using the system with only those two boot options (Linux and WinXP) for two or three weeks now. The changes have been made already.

I already looked before I posted. There is no backup. That's why I was hoping someone could post their backup.

Someone else's backup won't do you any good since everyone's partition table is different.

Obviously their computer probably won't be identical to mine but I have no intension of blindly copying their config file to mine. I just want to see what the entry for the "linux-smp" boot option looks like since I accidentally deleted mine without backing up the file first.

In this case, just look in your /boot for different kernels, look at the respective entries in lilo.conf and create new ones for the rest of the kernels in a similar fashion. If you have problems figuring it out, post the output from your "ls -l /boot" and your lilo.conf and I'll help you.

I certainly appreciate the help. Here's what I've got in /boot/

boot.0300
initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img
message@
vmlinuz@
config@
initrd-2.6.3-7mdksmp.img
message-graphic
vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
config-2.6.3-7mdk
initrd.img@
message-text
vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdksmp
config-2.6.3-7mdksmp
initrd-smp.img@
System.map@
vmlinuz-smp@
diag1.img
kernel.h@
System.map-2.6.3-7mdk
diag2.img
kernel.h-2.6.3-7mdksmp
System.map-2.6.3-7mdksmp
map
us.klt

and my lilo.conf is:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=menu
default="Linux"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=600
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Linux"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="WinXP"
table=/dev/hda

Since I want to use the SMP kernel, I assume that replacing "image=/boot/vmlinuz" with "image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp" would be a start but do any of the other settings need to change? Or is it actually that simply?

Thanks for the help,
Brandon

/boot/vmlinuz@ should be a symbolic link pointing to the non-smp kernel and /boot/vmlinuz-smp@ should be a SL pointing to the SMP kernel but make sure of that. Just run "ls -l /boot" and you'll see an arrow pointing to the actual files in the console output. initrd-smp.img should be pointing to initrd-2.6.3-7mdksmp.img. If all of the above is true - just add the following at the end of your lilo.conf:

Don't forget to run "lilo" after making the change. Also, replace the line that says default="Linux" with default="Linux-smp" if you want the SMP kernel to be the default option in the boot menu.