LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition
by Steven Pritchard, Bruno Gomes Pessanha, Nicolai Langfeldt, James Stanger, Jeff Dean
Objective 2: Install a Boot Manager
While it is possible to boot Linux from a floppy disk, most Linux installations boot from the computer's hard disk. This is a two-step process that begins after the system BIOS is initialized and ready to run an operating system. Starting Linux consists of the following two basic phases:
- Run the boot loader from the boot device
It is LILO 's job to find the selected kernel and get it loaded into memory, including any user-supplied options.
- Launch the Linux kernel and start processes
Your boot loader starts the specified kernel. The boot loader's job at this point is complete and the hardware is placed under the control of the running kernel, which sets up shop and begins running processes.
All Linux systems require some sort of boot loader, whether it's simply bootstrap code on a floppy disk or an application such as LILO or GRUB. Because the popularity of GRUB has grown, LPI has added it to the second release of the 101 exams.
LILO
The LILO is a small utility designed to load the Linux kernel (or the boot sector of another operating system) into memory and start it. A program that performs this function is commonly called a boot loader. While other boot loaders exist, LILO is the most popular and is installed as the default boot loader on most Linux distributions. LILO consists of two parts:
- The boot loader
This part of LILO is a two-stage program intended to find and load a kernel. It's a two-stage operation because the boot sector of the ...
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