Term

paper
Of
Network
Operating
System
 Topic- Boot
loaders
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
Miss. Cherry khosla Prashant negi
Lect in INT-406 B.Tech-IT
L.P.U Roll no-30
Phagwara . RD2701A30
Reg.No-1070070124

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am extremely grateful and remain indebted to my guide Miss Cherry khosla for
being a source of inspiration and for her constant support in the Design,
Implementation and Evaluation of the project. I am thankful to her for her constant
valuable suggestions, which benefited me a lot while developing the report on
“Boot Loaders”. She has been a constant source of inspiration and motivation for
hard work. She has been very co-operative throughout this project work. Through
this column, it would be my utmost pleasure to express my warm thanks to her for
her encouragement, co-operation and consent without which I mightn’t be able to
accomplish this project.
 PRASHANT NEGI

Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
 What is a Boot Loader

• Boot Loader Concepts

• Parts of a Boot Loader
 Boot sector Prrogramme
 Second Storage of Boot Loader
 Boot Loader installer
 • How to develop a boot loader
 Boot Loader Design
• Some Examples of Boot loaders
 LILO
 Ouputs
 Errors

 GNU GRUB
o Features
o Boot Process

• References

• Abstract

A computer's central processor can only execute program code found in Read-Only
Memory (ROM) and Random Access Memory (RAM). Modern operating systems and
application program code and data are stored on nonvolatile data storage devices, such
as hard disk drives, CD, DVD, USB flash drive, and floppy disk. When a computer is
first powered on, it does not have an operating system in ROM or RAM. The computer
must initially execute a small program stored in ROM along with the bare minimum of
data needed to access the nonvolatile devices from which the operating system programs
and data are loaded into RAM.

The small program that starts this sequence of loading into RAM, is known as a bootstrap
loader, bootstrap or boot loader. This small boot loader program's only job is to load
 other data and programs which are then executed from RAM. Often, multiple-stage boot
loaders are used, during which several programs of increasing complexity sequentially
load one after the other in a process of chain loading.

• Introduction

Boot loaders are the software that start-up operating systems when the power of the
computer is switched on. Normally, boot loaders do their job without being aware of
them. However, when we install two or more operating systems on computer we need to
configure the boot loader so we can choose which operating system to load. This is often
called dual- booting when we have two operating systems installed. Even if we're only
running one operating system, a boot loader gives an opportunity to pass information to
the operating system when it boots up.

Boot loaders run before any operating system is loaded, so they're independent of
operating systems. Any boot loader should be able to boot any operating systems.
Regardless of whether we're running Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc. we should be able to
use the boot loader of our choice.

• What is boot loader?

A boot loader, also called a boot manager, is a small program that places the operating
system (OS) of a computer into memory. When a computer is powered-up or restarted,
the basic input/output system (BIOS) performs some initial tests, and then transfers
control to the Master Boot Record (MBR) where the boot loader resides. Most new
computers are shipped with boot loaders for some version of Microsoft Windows or the
Mac OS. If a computer is to be used with Linux, a special boot loader must be installed.

• Boot loader Concepts

 The simplest boot loader concept involves only one machine with one operating system..
The same boot concept can be used for a Linux-only machine. In this case we would not
be able to pass additional parameters to the kernel at boot time. For a machine with
multiple operating systems, the following boot concepts are possible:

One operating system is booted from the hard disk. Other operating systems can be
booted from the floppy disk drive.

• Requirements: bootable floppy disk drive .

• Example: installation of Linux alongside Windows; booting of Linux from a boot
disk
• Advantage: no boot loader needs to be installed
• Disadvantage: requires working boot disks and the boot process takes longer
• Depending on the purpose of the computer, it is an advantage or disadvantage that
Linux cannot be booted without a disk.
• Parts of a boot loader

A boot loader typically consists of three programs:

1. The boot sector program is directly loaded by the BIOS at boot time and is
only 512 bytes in size.
2. The second stage program is loaded by the boot sector program and it
does everything you expect the boot loader to do.
3. The boot loader installer is not run when the system is booted, but it is
used to install the boot loader and the second stage program onto the boot disk.
These have to be stored in special locations, so they cannot be copied with cp.

 Boot sector program

The boot sector program can only be 512 bytes in size and not all 512 bytes are even
available in all cases. If the boot sector program must exist on a DOS partition or on a
DOS diskette, there must be a parameter block at the start of the boot sector.
Usually a boot sector program does one of the following things (not all three in one
program):

• Load another boot sector. This is typical for a boot sector program that lives in the
master boot record of a hard disk. It can find the first sector of the selected active
partition and chain load that. The MBR program that came traditionally with MS-
DOS has no ability to change the active partition at boot time. There are other boot
sector programs that let you select a partition by pressing a key, such as the MBR
program of LILO.
• Load a second stage boot loader. It is generally not possible for a boot sector
program to look into the directory for a file with a specific name and load that into
memory, but exceptions exist, at least for DOS file systems. Most boot sector
programs find the second stage by sector number rather than by name. The sector
numbers have to be put into the boot sector by the boot loader installer.
• Load the kernel directly. A kernel is typically much larger than a second stage
boot loader.

 The boot sector program in the Linux kernel loads the kernel directly into
memory without the need for a second stage boot loader. As the kernel is located
in contiguous sectors on a diskette, there is no need to traverse file system data
structures.

 Second stage of boot loader

This is the real boot program. It contains the user interface and the kernel loader. It
can be anywhere from 6.5 kilobytes (LILO) to over 100 kilobytes (GRUB) in size. It
contains the following functions:

• User interface. It is either a simple command line (old versions of LILO), a menu
or both. It allows you to select any number of operating systems and to specify
additional parameters to the operating system. The available options are specified by
 a configuration file. Modern versions of boot loaders can show their menu in a
bitmap picture.
• Operating system loader. loads the operating system into memory and runs it.
Alternatively we can load another boot loader specific to another operating system
and let it run. This is called chain loading.

 Boot loader installer

• The third part of the boot loader is only run when the boot loader is installed on a
disk. As opposed to the boot sector program and second stage, this is a normal
Linux program. In the case of LILO the installer must be rerun each time the
configuration is changed or any file has been updated. It performs the following
tasks:
• Install the boot sector. If the boot sector will be installed in the MBR of a hard
disk or on a DOS file system, not all 512 bytes may be overwritten, but the
partition table or the DOS parameter block must be preserved.
• Tell the boot sector where the second stage boot loader is. Usually it writes one or
more sector addresses into the boot loader.
• Tell the second stage boot loader where all relevant information is (configuration,
kernels). This is the case with LILO. LILO creates a map file that contains all
relevant sector addresses and puts pointers to the map file in the boot sector
and/or second stage boot loader.

• How to Develop a Boot Loader

A boot loader manages the boot process of the target device by initializing the target
device, downloading the run-time image, and booting the run-time image on the target
device.
 • After you develop a boot loader, we can use the boot management
capabilities of your boot loader to save time during the OS development process.
• Without a boot loader, you must transfer a run-time image to the target
device through a slow, manual process.
• With a boot loader, you can quickly download a new development run-
time image to our target device.
• Boot Loader Design
 Early CPU initialization.
 Enter supervisor mode.
 Clear the instruction and data caches.
 Clear the translation look-aside buffers (TLBs).
 Drain the write and fill buffers.
 Configure and enable the RAM controller.
 Ensure that interrupts are cleared and masked.
 Initialize any required phase-locked loops (PLLs) or time bases such as RTC and
tick counter. Optionally relocate the run-time image to RAM. The boot loader
may initially run in flash memory after reset.
 Optionally enable the MMU and caches.
 Obtain various user settings from Platform Builder, such as boot clean and
whether to establish a passive KITL connection, as well as IP and port address
information for various Platform Builder service connections.
 Execute the downloaded .bin file by ensuring the system state is configured
appropriately and then jumping to the run-time image's start-up address.
• Some examples of Boot Loaders
• LILO

LILO does not depend on a specific file system, and can boot an operating system
(e.g., Linux kernel images) from floppy disks and hard disks. One of up to sixteen
different images can be selected at boot time. Various parameters, such as the root
device, can be set independently for each kernel. LILO can be placed either in the
 master boot record (MBR) or the boot sector of a partition. In the latter case
something else must be placed in the MBR to load LILO.

• At system start, only the BIOS drivers are available for LILO to access
hard disks. For this reason, with very old BIOS, the accessible area is limited to
cylinders 0 to 1023 of the first two hard disks. For later BIOS, LILO can use 32-
bit "logical block addressing" (LBA) to access practically the entire storage of all
the hard disks that the BIOS allows access to.

• LILO was the default boot loader for most Linux distributions in the years
after the popularity of loadlin.

• Output:

• When LILO loads itself it displays the word “LILO”. Each letter is printed before or after
some specific action. If LILO fails at some point, the letters printed so far can be used to
identify the problem.

 (nothing)
 No part of LILO has been loaded. LILO either isn't installed or the partition on
which its boot sector is located isn't active. You have probably not booted from
the correct device or the media you've booted from is faulty.

 L

The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started, but it can't load the second
stage boot loader. The two-digit error codes indicate the type of problem. This
condition usually indicates a media failure or bad disk parameters in the BIOS.

 LI

The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot loader, but has
failed to execute it. This can be caused by bad disk parameters in the BIOS.

 LIL

The second stage boot loader has been started, but it can't load the descriptor table
from the map file. This is typically caused by a media failure or by bad disk
parameters in the BIOS.

 LIL?

The second stage boot loader has been loaded at an incorrect address. This is
typically caused by bad disk parameters in the BIOS.

 LIL-

The descriptor table is corrupt. This can be caused by bad disk parameters in the
BIOS.

 LILO

All parts of LILO have been successfully loaded.

• GNU GRUB

GNU GRUB (short for GNU Grand Unified Boot loader) is a boot loader package
from the GNU Project. GRUB (shortened form of GNU GRUB) is the reference
implementation of the Multi boot Specification, which enables a user to have
multiple operating systems on their computer, and choose which one to run when
the computer starts. GRUB can be used to select from different kernel
images available on a particular operating system's partitions, as well as pass
boot-time parameters to such kernels. GRUB can download operating system
images from a network, and thus can support diskless systems. GRUB supports
automatic decompression of OS images prior to booting from them.

GNU GRUB was developed from a package called the Grand Unified
Bootloader (a play on grand unified theory). It is predominantly used on Unix-
like systems. The GNU operating system uses GNU GRUB as its boot loader, as
do most Linux distributions. Solaris has used GRUB as its boot loader on x86
systems starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release.

• Features:

 GRUB is dynamically configurable. It loads its configuration at startup, allowing

boot-time changes such as selecting different kernels or initial RAM disks. To this
end, GRUB provides a simple, bash-like, command line interface which lets users
write new boot sequences.

 It supports multiple executable formats, and is geometry translation independent.

Although Multiboot compliant, GRUB supports non-multiboot operating systems
such as Microsoft Windows and OS/2 via chain loading. GRUB supports all
commonly used Unix file systems, VFAT and NTFS used by Windows, as well
as Logical Block Address (LBA) mode. GRUB allows users to view the contents of
files on any supported file system.
  GRUB differs from other boot loaders by being able to communicate with a user
directly via a GRUB prompt. A GRUB prompt is the stage before GRUB loads an
operating system and can be triggered at a text-mode GRUB booting screen by
pressing the "c" key. A prompt (similar to bash) can also be obtained by booting
GRUB without an operating system attached, or in a GRUB installation with an
operating system where the file "menu.lst" is absent. From the GRUB prompt a user
can manually select and control booting from any installed operating system by using
bash-like commands. To boot an operating system automatically, the appropriate
commands are placed in a configuration file named "menu.lst" in a designated
subdirectory.

• Boot Process of GRUB

• When a computer is turned on, the computer's BIOS finds the primary bootable
device (usually the computer's hard disk) and loads the initial bootstrap program
from the master boot record(MBR), the first 512 bytes of the hard disk, then
transfers control to this code.

• The MBR contains GRUB stage 1. Given the small size of the MBR, Stage 1 does
little more than load the next stage of GRUB (which may reside physically
elsewhere on the disk). Stage 1 can load Stage 2 directly, or it can load stage 1.5.
GRUB Stage 1.5 is located in the first 30 kilobytes of hard disk immediately
following the MBR. Stage 1.5 loads Stage 2.

• When GRUB Stage 2 receives control, it presents an interface where the user can
select which operating system to boot. This normally takes the form of a graphical
menu. If this is not available, or the user wishes direct control, GRUB has its own
command prompt. The user can then manually specify the boot parameters.
GRUB can be set to automatically load a specified kernel after a user defined
timeout.

• Once boot options have been selected, GRUB loads the selected kernel into
memory and passes control to the kernel. Alternatively, GRUB can pass control
 of the boot process to another loader, using chain loading. This is the method used
to load operating systems such as Windows, that do not support the Multiboot
standard. In this case, copies of the other system's boot programs have been saved
by GRUB. Instead of a kernel, the other system is loaded as though it had been
started from the MBR. This could be another boot manager, such as the Microsoft
boot menu, allowing further selection of non-Multiboot operating systems. (This
behavior is often automatic when modern Linux distributions are installed "on top
of" an existing Windows installation. This enables retention of the original
operating system without modification, including systems that contain multiple
versions of Windows.)

• References

• Search engine

www.google.com

www.Lycos.com

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Boot_loader

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Boot_sequence_on_standard_PC_.28IBM-
PC_compatible.29

• http://www.xs4all.nl/~lennartb/bootloaders/node3.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LILO_(boot_loader)