next up previous contents
Next: Installation and updates Up: Disk geometry Previous: Specifying the geometry

Disk parameter table

 

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.



Ross Biro
Sat May 20 13:51:22 PDT 1995