Linux BOOT Process
Boot sequence summary When a PC is booted it starts running a BIOS program which is a memory resident program on an EEPROM integrated circuit. The BIOS program will eventually try to read the first sector on a booting media such as a hard or floppy drive. The boot sector contains a small program that the BIOS will load and attempt to pass run control to. This program will attempt to read the operating system from the disk and run it. LILO is the program that Linux systems typically use to give users a choice of operating systems to run. It is usually installed in the boot sector which is also called the master boot record. If the user chooses to boot Linux, LILO will attempt to load the Linux kernel causing the following basic events to happen: BIOS Load boot sector from one of: • Floppy • CDROM • Hard drive The boot order can be changed from within the BIOS. BIOS setup can be entered by pressing a key during bootup. The exact key depends varies, but is often one of D...