1. Kernel Disk -

You can build a kernel with a bootstrap attached to the beginning of it (and many of the distributed kernels are like this). If one of these is copied directly to a diskette (using dd or equivalent), the resulting diskette will boot the kernel directly. Since there's no LILO command prompt you have to use rdev to preset the kernel's startup parameters (most notably the location of the root file system).  These disks are probably best suited to 'roll your own' or embedded system projects.  Make a Kernel diskette

2. Boot Floppy -

The boot floppy has only the boot sector written to it. It takes the place of the hard disk's boot sector or Master Boot Record, which sometimes gives people trouble.  The boot disk is generated by changing the boot= line in lilo.conf, and the resulting diskette is only useful on the computer that generated it. (If you try it on another machine you will get L I .) The booted system behaves "normally", that is, it is the same system you would have if you could boot from your hard drive, and all the files will be found in their usual places.  Make boot floppy

3. Emergency Boot -

This disk contains LILO and all the necessary files that go with it, plus a Linux Kernel. It is configured to mount the root file system using the correct partition of your hard disk.  It can be used on other computers by supplying the root= command at the LILO prompt (you have to know where the root file system is). These disks are handy for working on any computer that does not have a damaged file system. They are ideal for fixing boot problems, because they mount the real root file system and therefore files like /etc/lilo.conf are found there, and not in /temp/root/etc/lilo.conf.  Make EBD

4. Rescue Disk -

With this, you can get Linux up and running without using your hard drive. Usually the root file system is contained in a ramdisk that is on a second diskette. The available commands are somewhat limited but this is the way to go if you can't mount your hard disk's root file system. Running fsck to repair the file system is common. Also, the install disks you make from a distribution work this way.  And LOADLIN mimics this procedure as well, loading a kernel and a ramdisk from a DOS session.

The downside of using rescue disks is that your "normal" filesystem tends to get mounted in a subdirectory of the ramdisk's file system.  This makes it accessible, but a lot of your default search paths and paths to config files won't work. For example, /sbin/lilo would be found at /temp/sbin/lilo instead.  Rescue disk