Basic Boot PRocess For Linux

Below are the basic stages of the boot process for an x86 system:

1. The system BIOS checks the system and launches the rst stage boot loader on the MBR of the primary hard disk.

2. The First stage boot loader loads itself into memory and launches the second stage boot loader
from the /boot/ partition.

3. The second stage boot loader loads the kernel into memory, which in turn loads any necessary
modules and mounts the root partition read-only.


4. The kernel transfers control of the boot process to the /sbin/init program.

5. The /sbin/init program loads all services and user-space tools, and mounts all partitions
listed in /etc/fstab.

6. The user is presented with a login prompt for the freshly booted Linux system.

Because configuration of the boot process is more common than the customization of the shutdown process, the remainder of this chapter discusses in detail how the boot process works and how it can be customized to suite speci c needs.