This is a quick'n'dirty documentation how to install Atari Lilo, based
on a snapshot release in this directory. The final package will
contain some proper docs, but I haven't written those yet...

0) Back up your system as usual... :-)

1) Unpack atari-lilo*.tar.gz in the root dir.

2) Decide which partition you want to use for Lilo. Lilo can be
installed only on your boot disk. That is the disk from which also TOS
is booted. The ROMs first try the lowest-numbered SCSI disk as boot
disk, then the lowest-numbered ACSI disk, and last the first (master)
IDE disk (everything if the busses/devices exist).

On that boot disk, Lilo can be installed on:

 - A primary partition (i.e. one which is defined directly in the root
   sector) which contains a GEMDOS, Minix or ext2 filesystem (most
   other Unix filesystem should also be ok). For this type, just use
   the usual Linux device name (e.g. /dev/sda2).
 
   Do *NOT* choose the current GEMDOS boot partition, since in its
   boot sector, the boot code of your TOS HD driver resides, and you
   probably don't want to overwrite it.

   (The limitiation to primary partitions only exists, because the
   root sector boot code supplied by your TOS HD driver usually only
   checks those partitions if they're bootable. Theoretically it would
   be possible to also check extended partitions. If your HD driver
   should do this, you can also use an extended partition for the Lilo
   boot sector.)

 - The auxiliary root sector of the first extended partition. This
   sector also has an XGM entry in the root sector partition table. It
   has no real device name under Linux, but Lilo accepts the notation
   "/dev/sdax" for it (Replace the "sda" as needed...) I'd prefer this
   method if you have extended partitions, but no primary Linux
   partition.

 - The root sector of the boot disk itself. If you do this, the old
   root sector boot code will be overwritten, and Lilo will be the
   only method for booting (it will be started anyway, no matter what
   your boot preference is). Ok, you can still press ALT to boot from
   floppy... :-) The device for this alternative is the whole-disk
   device, e.g. /dev/sda.

The device choosen must be entered as "bootdev" in /etc/lilo.conf.
Note that the discussion above only applies to where the Lilo boot
sector goes, not where other files accessed by the loader can be.
(Those files are /boot/loader.patched, /boot/map, and the
kernel/ramdisk images.) Those other files can reside on any device
that is accessible by the XBIOS function DMAread, i.e. any SCSI or
ACSI disk, and the first IDE disk. (I've heard that the Falcon DMAread
can't access a slave IDE disk :-( ).

3) Create a /etc/lilo.conf. You can use /etc/lilo.conf.example as a
template for this.

You always will have to set "bootdev" in the header section, and
define at least one boot record (a "bootrec" section). Just look at
the example. Probably you'll want to copy a kernel image to /boot, but
this isn't really necessary, only convention.

If you have a video board and no monitor attached to the internal
video chips, you also need to start the TOS driver (e.g. NVDI) for
that video board, otherwise you can't see the boot menu :-) For this,
use mount and exec commands in the header section.

4) Run /sbin/lilo, maybe with a '-v' option to see some more infos...

5) Now use atari-fdisk to set a boot flag on the partition on which
you installed the Lilo boot code (your "bootdev"). The command in
atari-fdisk for this is 'a'. Select the partition and choose "Linux"
(boot flag 0x10) for it. Skip this step if you installed Lilo directly
in the root sector...

6) Now change your boot preference. This is the boot flag of the
partition which usually should be booted. Use can use the 'bootos'
utility under Linux (comes with Lilo):

  bootos Linux

Or under TOS you can use my BOOTFLAG.CPX (you find it in
/usr/lib/m68kboot after unpacking). BUG! : BOOTFLAG.CPX doesn't test
yet whether the machine has a SCU, and crashes on machines without!

The boot preference can also modified with most other TOS utilities to
access the NVRAM.

The boot preference is stored in the NVRAM, i.e. setting it is
permanent. On machines with a SCU (TT, Medusa?) there is a second
possibility for selecting the boot preference, with a register in the
SCU. This setting is valid only until the next power-off. After that,
the boot preference will be unspecified again (except if the NVRAM is
set), and by default TOS will be booted. BOOTFLAG.CPX allows you also
to use this method. Unfortunately, it's currently not possible to set
the SCU register under Linux, but (due to a kernel bug :-), you can at
least view the setting with "bootos -t".

If your machine doesn't have NVRAM, you're a bit out of luck... In
that case, you must set the boot flag of the Lilo partition to "TOS"
(0x80) and make your former TOS boot partition unbootable (set boot
flag to 0).

7) Now reboot and see :-)


Roman