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Boot Procedure

The document outlines the boot process of a Linux system, starting from the BIOS which loads the MBR, followed by GRUB that executes the kernel. The kernel then mounts the root file system and executes the init program, which determines the system's run level. Finally, runlevel programs are executed based on the specified run level, managing various services during boot.

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6 views

Boot Procedure

The document outlines the boot process of a Linux system, starting from the BIOS which loads the MBR, followed by GRUB that executes the kernel. The kernel then mounts the root file system and executes the init program, which determines the system's run level. Finally, runlevel programs are executed based on the specified run level, managing various services during boot.

Uploaded by

bharathbabu2022
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

BIOS
 BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System
 Performs some system integrity checks
 Searches, loads, and executes the boot loader program.
 Once the boot loader program is detected and loaded into the
memory, BIOS gives the control to it.
 So, in simple terms BIOS loads and executes the MBR
boot loader.

2. MBR
 MBR stands for Master Boot Record.
 It is located in the 1st sector of the bootable disk. Typically
/dev/hda, or /dev/sda
 MBR is less than 512 bytes in size. This has three components
1) primary boot loader info in 1st 446 bytes 2) partition table
info in next 64 bytes 3) mbr validation check in last 2 bytes.
 It contains information about GRUB (or LILO in old systems).
 So, in simple terms MBR loads and executes the GRUB boot
loader.

3. GRUB
 GRUB stands for Grand Unified Bootloader.
 Grub configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.conf (/etc/grub.conf is
a link to this). The following is sample grub.conf of CentOS.
 So, in simple terms GRUB just loads and executes Kernel and
initrd images.

4. Kernel
 Mounts the root file system as specified in the “root=” in
grub.conf
 Kernel executes the /sbin/init program
 Since init was the 1st program to be executed by Linux Kernel,
it has the process id (PID) of 1. Do a ‘ps -ef | grep init’ and check
the pid.
 initrd stands for Initial RAM Disk.
 initrd is used by kernel as temporary root file system until
kernel is booted and the real root file system is mounted. It also
contains necessary drivers compiled inside, which helps it to
access the hard drive partitions, and other hardware.

5. Init
 Looks at the /etc/inittab file to decide the Linux run level.
 Following are the available run levels
 0 – halt
 1 – Single user mode
 2 – Multiuser, without NFS
 3 – Full multiuser mode
 4 – unused
 5 – X11
 6 – reboot
 Init identifies the default initlevel from /etc/inittab and uses that
to load all appropriate program.
 Execute ‘grep initdefault /etc/inittab’ on your system to identify
the default run level
 If you want to get into trouble, you can set the default run level
to 0 or 6. Since you know what 0 and 6 means, probably you
might not do that.
 Typically you would set the default run level to either 3 or 5.

6. Runlevel programs
 When the Linux system is booting up, you might see various
services getting started. For example, it might say “starting
sendmail …. OK”. Those are the runlevel programs, executed
from the run level directory as defined by your run level.
 Depending on your default init level setting, the system will
execute the programs from one of the following directories.
 Run level 0 – /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/
 Run level 1 – /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/
 Run level 2 – /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/
 Run level 3 – /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/
 Run level 4 – /etc/rc.d/rc4.d/
 Run level 5 – /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/
 Run level 6 – /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/

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