####[ How-Do-I Documents ]######################################
Sub : GUI boot-up under LILO
How-Do-I enable a GUI boot-up under LILO ?
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Introduction
1.1 LILO is perhaps the most common loader used for Linux.
The fact that the boot-up process is void of colour or
even a welcome screen, seems a bit drab.
1.2 In the newer versions of LILO, it is possible to have a
background image on display during the menu for select-
ing the OS (in case of a multi-OS system).
2 How to go about it.
2.1 Step 1 is to check the version of LILO installed. It is
unlikely to work if the LILO version on your system is
less than recommended. To check, do the following (as
root):
#lilo -V
[Please note the "V" in upper case. If you run it as -v
command line, all that will happen is re-initialisation
of the boot record in a verbose mode !]
2.2 If your version of LILO is one of the newer ones supp-
orting GUI boots, you can proceed with the following:
o Make an image
o Copy the image to /boot
o Edit /etc/lilo.conf
o Re-initialise LILO
o Reboot
3 Making an image
3.1 The image format used by LILO is ".pcx". [ Note, it is
reported that Ver 22.x of LILO can also work with non-
compressed bitmaps (.bmp) of 640x480 (16 colors). The
has not tested this out as yet ].
3.2 The .pcx file should be of size 320x200 ... This can be
made using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (gimp).
Either make a .pcx image de-novo under gimp or convert
an existing image to .pcx under gimp. The only cravat
to look out for is:
3.2.1 Under gimp menu select:
o [Image] --> [Scale]
o [Image] --> [Indexed]
If you convert without setting these two options, the
.pcx image created may not work under LILO.
4 Copy the image to /boot
4.1 In newer versions of some distros like Red hat and Man-
drake, GUI boot-ups are already built in. In which case
save the original file by some other name and then do
the copying. The image file (if existing) resides under
/boot/message. Note, if you do "file /boot/message" all
that you are likely to get is "data" ! In case such a
file does not exist under /boot, skip the first step.
#mv /boot/message /boot/message.orig
#cp /full/path/to/yourimage.pcx /boot/message
5 Edit /etc/lilo.conf
5.1 In case you are already having a distro with GUI boot,
no changes are necessary. If not insert a line in your
/etc/lilo.conf "message=/boot/message". The usual place
in /etc/lilo.conf where it should be inserted is as per
the example below:
boot=/dev/hdaN (where N is your /boot partition)
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
timeout=50
message=/boot/message <--- Note the place
....
[rest of lilo.conf]
....
default=linux
read-only
6 Re-initialise LILO and reboot.
6.1 Most folk are already aware of this step. Just do the
following step and reboot:
#lilo -v
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7 Kudos and Brickbats
7.1 This document is released under GFDL license. You are
free to use and distribute it under terms of the said
license.
7.2 Any kudos and brickbats should be directed at:
Rajesh Fowkar
USM Bish