# Lilo gives fatal error about experimental device

## jantypas

I'm sure it's easy to fix, but I'm not finding it so easy....  :Smile: 

I have three Gentoo systems which were successfully running kernel 2.6.22-r2.  However, all three systems:

- Boot with lilo

- Have lvm2 on a raid1 volume

The system is laid out as:

Sytstem disks: sda, sdb

Raid1 md0 on top of sda1, sdb1

LVM2 on top of md0[post=][/post]

So long as I masked lilo to 2.7 and mdadm to 2.5.x, I could run lilo and things would work.  Once I removed the masks, and went to 2.7.3 on lilo and 2.6.x on mdadm, running Lilo now gives me:

Lilo fatal Linux experimental device 0x04x needs to be defined

Check man lilo.conf under disk= and max_partitions=

Trying to revert back to these packages seems to be impossible as portage claims they no longer exist.

1. What does this error mean?

2. What can I do about it?

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## M.A.

Better use GRUB instead of LILO. This way you will probably have less headaches.

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## NeddySeagoon

jantypas,

You can find the old ebuilds and put them in your overlay.

Grub is not really an option unless /boot is outside your LVM space.

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