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Linux Booting Process

The Linux booting process begins with the BIOS performing checks and loading the MBR boot loader from the hard drive. The MBR then loads and executes the GRUB boot loader, which displays a menu to select the kernel. The kernel loads initrd for temporary filesystem access, then executes init. Init determines the runlevel and runs programs in the corresponding runlevel directory to start services and complete the boot process.

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161 views

Linux Booting Process

The Linux booting process begins with the BIOS performing checks and loading the MBR boot loader from the hard drive. The MBR then loads and executes the GRUB boot loader, which displays a menu to select the kernel. The kernel loads initrd for temporary filesystem access, then executes init. Init determines the runlevel and runs programs in the corresponding runlevel directory to start services and complete the boot process.

Uploaded by

AMBELEMBIJE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Linux booting process

BIOS

• BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System


• Performs some system integrity checks
• Searches, loads, and executes the boot loader
program.
• It looks for boot loader in floppy, cd-rom, or hard drive.
You can press a key (typically F12 or F2, but it depends
on your system) during the BIOS start-up to change the
boot sequence.
• Once the boot loader program is detected and loaded
into the memory, BIOS gives control to it.
• So, in simple terms BIOS loads and executes the MBR
boot loader
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 /LILO
• So, in simple terms MBR loads and executes the
GRUB boot loader.
GRUB

• GRUB stands for Grand Unified Bootloader.


• If you have multiple kernel images installed on your
system, you can choose which one to be executed.
• GRUB displays a splash screen, waits for few seconds, if
you don’t enter anything, it loads the default kernel
image as specified in the grub configuration file.
• GRUB has the knowledge of the filesystem (the older
Linux loader LILO didn’t understand filesystem).
• Grub configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.conf
(/etc/grub.conf is a link to this
Sample grub.conf of CentOS.

• #boot=/dev/sda default=0 timeout=5


splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.g
z hiddenmenu title CentOS (2.6.18-
194.el5PAE) root (hd0,0) kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5PAE ro
root=LABEL=/ initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-
194.el5PAE.img
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.
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
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/
• There are symbolic links available for these directory under /etc
directly. So, /etc/rc0.d is linked to /etc/rc.d/rc0.d.
• Under the /etc/rc.d/rc*.d/ directories, you would see programs that
start with S and K.
• Programs starts with S are used during startup. S for startup.
• Programs starts with K are used during shutdown. K for kill.
• There are numbers right next to S and K in the program names.
Those are the sequence number in which the programs should be
started or killed.
• For example, S12syslog is to start the syslog deamon, which has the
sequence number of 12. S80sendmail is to start the
sendmail daemon, which has the sequence number of 80. So, syslog
program will be started before sendmail

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