Concepts Glossary 150 Getting Started Guide • Interfacing with network connections at the lowest level (and then passing network data on to other programs for processing) The Linux kernel features a modular design, so that many kernel features can be loaded or unloaded as the kernel is running, without rebooting the Linux system. For example, any of these features can be loaded on the fly as kernel modules (the exact features available depend on how you have configured your Linux sys- tem--the most common use of kernel modules is to access additional hardware devices on your system): • Ability to read and write additional filesystem types. • Networking capability for a device that you have added to your system. • Additional character set support for international languages that you don’t normally use. • Access to a SCSI device that you have added to your system. Unlike most other systems, the Linux kernel source code is included with Linux, so you can make changes in the very core of how Linux operates by using Linux configuration tools to alter the kernel. This is not something that most users need to contemplate, however. LILO LILO is the Linux Loader. It is a boot manager program that lets you define mul- tiple operating systems to be used on a single computer (or even on a single hard disk with multiple partitions). LILO may be configured and installed by default when you load OpenLinux. If you are sharing a system between OpenLinux and Windows, you may choose to use the BootMagic program in Windows to allow you to start your computer in either Windows or Linux. BootMagic and LILO perform much the same func- tion. If you need to review or change the configuration of your LILO boot loader, review the file /etc/lilo.conf. If you make any changes to this file, you must run the program lilo to update your configuration on the boot sector of your hard disk. Be careful when modifying LILO; you could create a situa- tion in which you can’t reach (boot to) one of the operating systems stored on your hard disk. In this situation, the oper-