The file /etc/disktab is the obsolete way to define the disk geometry. It is described here only for completeness. Its use with LILO 0.15 and newer is deprecated.
For each device ( /dev/hda 0x300,
/dev/sda
0x800,
/dev/sda1
0x801, etc.),
the BIOS code and the disk geometry have to be specified, e.g.
# /etc/disktab - LILO disk parameter table # # This table contains disk parameters for non-standard disks. # Parameters in disktab _always_ override auto-detected disk parameters. # Note: this file is typically not needed for normal use of LILO. # Dev. BIOS Secs/ Heads/ Cylin- Part. # num. code track cylin. ders offset # (optional) 0x800 0x80 32 64 631 0 # /dev/sda 0x801 0x80 32 64 631 32 # /dev/sda1 0x802 0x80 32 64 631 204800 # /dev/sda2
Those parameters are just a random example from my system. However, many SCSI controllers re-map the drives to 32 sectors and 64 heads. The number of cylinders does not have to be exact, but it shouldn't be lower than the number of effectively available cylinders.
Note that the device number and the BIOS code have to be specified as hexadecimal numbers with the ``0x'' prefix. Also note that the complete information has to be repeated for each partition.