Boot Stages

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Disk Based Derivatives (SYSLINUX, EXTLINUX)

  1. The Master Boot Record contains the partition table of the disk.
  2. The boot sector figures out enough about the system and the filesystem to load data from the disk.
  3. Sector 1 (the first sector of ldlinux.sys or extlinux.sys), which loads the rest of the .sys file, using the boot sector as a subroutine library.

Common to all derivatives:

  1. The core is fully loaded, it parses the configuration file, and treats modules as executable programs.
  2. The core loads any modules that might have been requested.

Page based on the following conversation: http://elflink.pastebin.com/fe70d552

PXELINUX

  • The PXE software loads the entire core.

ISOLINUX

  • The El Torito BIOS loads a CD-ROM sector, 2048 bytes. This sector replaces the boot sector and Sector 1 of the disk-based derivatives.

See also

This page is known to be best accurate as of SYSLINUX version 3.70. Minor modifications may have occurred in subsequent versions, but the general idea presented in this page remains the same.

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