Red Hat Linux 7.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Alpha Installation Guide
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# Post-Installation MILO Setup

## Console Configuration

If you dedicated the first partition of your first hard drive to a small FAT partition for booting, you can the modify the Boot Menu to have a selection to load MILO from this partition.

Add another boot selection, as described in the section called Setting up ARC for Installation for ARC and in the section called Setting up AlphaBIOS for Installation for AlphaBIOS. However, this time you should select the appropriate hard drive device. If you installed Linux to the first hard drive, the device should be:

    scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

If you are using an ARC console or the AlphaBIOS console, select the following device:

    Disk 0 Partition 1

If you wish to autoboot into Linux, set the `OSLOADOPTIONS` variable. In the ARC and AlphaBIOS consoles, the contents of the `OSLOADOPTIONS` parameter are passed to MILO as a command. In order to boot Linux automatically in MILO, enter a value for `OSLOADOPTIONS` similar to this one:

    boot sda2:/boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/initrd.img root=/dev/sda2

Once you have done this, booting and running Linux on an Alpha system should be very similar to doing so on an x86 system.

## Boot Configuration using /etc/milo.conf

Use of a configuration file, /etc/milo.conf, can streamline booting different kernels or passing different sets of arguments to the same kernel. It is analogous to the /etc/aboot.conf file read by aboot, but is in a very different format, much more along the lines of a LILO configuration file.

    milo.conf(5)					     milo.conf(5)

    NAME
           /etc/milo.conf - MILO configuration file

    DESCRIPTION
           MILO reads this file when it is given a boot dev: command,
           where  dev  specifies  the  device  and	partition   where
           /etc/milo.conf resides, e.g.  sda2.

           milo.conf  consists  of keyword = value statements and may
           also contain empty lines and #-style comments.  Value  may
           be enclosed in double quotes, which are necessary if value
           contains space(s).

           The file is structurally sub-divided into  a  common  part
           and  several  per-image parts.  Each per-image part starts
           with an image statement.	 Common part is	 everything  pre
           ceding the first image statement.

    COMMON PART KEYWORDS
           timeout = timeout
    	      Instruct	MILO to boot the first image specified in
    	      /etc/milo.conf, giving the user timeout/10  seconds
    	      to  interrupt.   A  zero	value  means  the default
    	      behaviour (no time limit).

           command = MILO_command
    	      Execute MILO_command when /etc/milo.conf	is  read.
    	      A typical example may be
    			command = "set MEMORY_SIZE 224"
    	      This  statement is cumulative: several commands may
    	      be given, and their order will be preserved.

    PER-IMAGE KEYWORDS
           image = [dev:]file
    	      File is the Linux kernel image file name.	 If  dev:
    	      is  omitted,  same device and partition are used as
    	      those for /etc/milo.conf.

           device = dev:
    	      An alternative way to specify the device where  the
    	      kernel image resides.

           label = boot_label
    	      The  name for this boot selection (case sensitive).

           root = root_device
    	      The  name	  (in	normal	 Linux	 notation,   e.g.
    	      /dev/sda5)  of the device where the root filesystem
    	      should be mounted.

           append = kernel_arguments
    	      Any remaining kernel arguments that you wish to  be
    	      appended to the (implicit) boot command line.  Note
    	      that you can,  for  example,  put	 root=root_device
    	      into  kernel_arguments  instead  of  using the root
    	      statement.

           command = MILO_command
    	      A per-image  version  of	the  common-part  command
    	      statement.   It is also cumulative and the commands
    	      are  executed  just  before  booting  the	 selected
    	      image.

Here is an example /etc/milo.conf file, which could work with an installation.

    CLASS="COMPUTEROUTPUT">
    #
    # /etc/milo.conf
    #
    # Global parameters:
    #
    # timeout =
    # command = "MILO command"  (can be used more than one time)
    #
    # Per-image parameters:
    #
    # image = [dev:]file
    # label = label
    # root = /dev/<root device>
    # append = options
    #
    # All image descriptions must start with the `image' statement.
    #

    timeout = 50

    image = boot/vmlinuz
    label = SINGLE
    root = /dev/sda2
    append = initrd=boot/initrd.img single

    image = boot/vmlinuz
    label = LINUX
    root = /dev/sda2
    append = initrd=boot/initrd.img

    image = boot/vmlinux.old.gz
    label = OLD
    root = /dev/sda2

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