These instructions apply primarily to Owl systems. Many other modern Linux distributions use GRUB instead of LILO by default, but we intentionally keep using LILO in Owl.
fsck won't be forced for ext2/3/4 filesystems on bootup because of them possibly having reached or exceeded the “maximum mount count” or “maximum time since last check”: check each filesystem with tune2fs -l /dev/… and, if needed, disable the regular checks with tune2fs -c0 -i0 /dev/… (we normally do this right after creating filesystems, but it does not hurt to check it pre-reboot)cat /proc/mdstat (if any of them are degraded, then at least take this into consideration)lilo -R … once you're done editing /etc/lilo.conf and after you've run lilo)panic=10 kernel parameter (to ensure that the system is automatically rebooted into the previous boot target should the kernel panic, e.g. upon failing to mount the root filesystem)nc -vul UDP-PORT-NUMBER under screen on a nearby system to capture the kernel messages (but then you will likely need a second reboot to disable netconsole)/etc/lilo.conf, be careful about your use of append vs. addappend (if in doubt about these, review the lilo.conf(5) man page first)/sbin/shutdown -r 5 & into /etc/rc.d/rc.local (this is needed in case the new system boots up mostly fine, but its networking setup fails for whatever reason)service vz stop to shutdown OpenVZ containers) - this may serve to reduce the risk of the system getting stuck on shutdown, as well as provide more info to usrc.local trick was used, then run shutdown -c 2), then comment out the command from rc.localnc on the other end), disable it and prepare for another reboot/etc/lilo.conf and run lilo)rc.local is executed, so that command might need to be run a bit later - or you might even be able to edit rc.local before it executes