my problem is this: I am making my slack box in to a server, with no monitor or keyboard, and it works very well, apart from the 2 minute pause in the lilo. I first tried to pyt the timeout to 20, but this made no difference, and next i tried adding the delay 20, and that didin't change anything either...

here are the salient points of my lilo.conf which lives in /etc. I can't remembre if the lilo is in my mbr, but it probably is.

boot = /dev/hda
delay = 20
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only

any help would be apriciated

cheers

Not sure what you are asking... but if you want to remove the delay then remove the:
"prompt" and "timeout = 1200" and "delay = 20"

-------------------------------------------------------------
#sample
# lilo.conf custom for ntlab machine 0
# global options
boot=/dev/hda
lba32
vga=normal
root=/dev/hda5
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=ntlab-0
# end global
# end lilo.conf

Think it's the timeout value you want to change, but remember it's in tenths of a second (eg 100=10sec).

Are you remembering to run /sbin/lilo as root to commit the changes?

hi again

my lilo .conf looks like this now, and it still pauses for 2 minutes, (at the boot loader screen that says "hit any key to continue" but I can't with no keyboard!).

masterj, i don't think I know what you mean about the "run /sbin/lilo as root", but it sound like it might be important. I am accessing the machine by slogon as root through my network from this machine



# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
#delay = 20
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt
#prompt
#timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal

# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only

Remove the # in front of timeout and change the value to something small like 20 (2 second wait). This line controls that pause for lilo. As mentioned, it's in tenths of a second, so divide by 10 to get the number of seconds.

It should look something like this:
After you make that change, run "lilo" when you're logged in as root. (The full path is /sbin/lilo, but if you're logged in as root, /sbin is in your path)

I'm pretty sure there's a way to make lilo not pause at all, but I've never done that, so if you want essentially no pause, you could make timeout = 1.

If this does not work, repost your edited /etc/lilo.conf and the output of running lilo as root.

uhh. the lilo.conf that I posted will allow you to straight-boot into Slackware.

daceo,
After you make your modification to lilo.conf run the following command

lilo

It will then say something like "MACHINE * added"

Then reboot.

daceo, you have to run /sbin/lilo after you make any change to /etc/lilo.conf for the changes to have any effect.

I use /sbin/lilo -v
to see what is going on.

wow, gosh etc, I entered

root@serviette:/etc# /sbin/lilo
Added Linux *

and now it comes up straight away.... with no pause! which is ok

so if i understand corectly you have to run lilo as root to put in to effect changes to the lilo.conf.

the lilo conf looks like this:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
#delay = 20
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt
#prompt
timeout = 20
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

thanks very much for your help

Yes, any changes you make will not take effect until you run /sbin/lilo as root.