3 Linux Questions

[vwgtiturbo]

Being a Linux newbie (I started fiddling with it a few days ago) I have MANY questions, but for the sake of however is reading this, I will list only three...

First, I read that you can change the text displayed on the LILO boot menu, but now I can't find where I saw that. How can I change the options to say something else?

Second, is the 'terminal' simply the Linux equivalent to Windows 'command prompt'?

Third, on the LILO boot menu I have the following options:
linux
linux-non-fb
failsafe
windows
floppy

What is 'non-fb'?
Is the 'failsafe' similar to Windows 'safe-mode'?

I GREATLY appreciate any help.

[JimH]

First)
Sounds like you want to change the labels. You can edit /etc/lilo.conf. You have to be logged in as root to edit this file. The option you want to change is "label =whatever"

Then for the changes to take effect you must run: /sbin/lilo -v
Look for any errors.

Second) Yes

Third)
no framebuffer.
And yes failsafe is equivalent to safe-mode

Jim H

[vwgtiturbo]

First)
Sounds like you want to change the labels. You can edit /etc/lilo.conf. You have to be logged in as root to edit this file. The option you want to change is "label =whatever"

Then for the changes to take effect you must run: /sbin/lilo -v
Look for any errors.

Second) Yes

Third)
no framebuffer.
And yes failsafe is equivalent to safe-mode

Jim H

Well, I looked for that file, but couldn't find it. I went to the Quick Jump (or something like that) in that program menu and navigated it to /etc, but never saw the LILO file... I will try again. Thanks for the help!
BTW... what is no frame buffering?

[JimH]

Are you sure you are using lilo and not grub?

Try this command in a console.

locate lilo.conf

Techinal definition from the framebuffer docs....

The frame buffer device provides an abstraction for the graphics hardware. It represents the frame buffer of some video hardware and allows application software to access the graphics hardware through a well-defined interface, so the software doesn't need to know anything about the low-level (hardware register) stuff.

For the most part right now the framebuffer is used for graphical console modes. That way you are not limited to say an 80x25 text mode display. I use an 1024x768x16 console mode. It makes it a lot nicer to work in console mode.

Jim H

[vwgtiturbo]

Okay, I found the file. But I can't edit the file. Also, I tried to edit my boot.ini file and I also can't edit that. I put the cursor in the body of the file, but nothing happens when I type. I tried to log on as root so I could change the properties of the file to allow me to edit, but that didn't work.

[trommaster]

what editoer are you using?

[babbing]

make sure you are the superuser. that is the only thing that will prevent you from editing lilo.conf

[vwgtiturbo]

what editoer are you using?

I have no idea... I just 'Opened' the file and it came up as text in a window

[vwgtiturbo]

make sure you are the superuser. that is the only thing that will prevent you from editing lilo.conf

Superuser? Is that root?

[trommaster]

what desktop environment are you using? kde, gnome?
yes, super user is root. you can get to it by typing 'su' into a terminal and putting in the root password.

in the editor, click help and see if theres an about option there showing what program it is