Category:Boot loaders
From ArchWiki
In order to boot Arch Linux, a Linux-capable boot loader must be installed to the Master Boot Record or the GUID Partition Table. It is the first piece of software started by the BIOS or UEFI. It is responsible for loading the kernel with the wanted kernel parameters, and initial RAM disk before initiating the boot process.
Feature comparison
| Name | Firmware | Multi-boot | File systems | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIOS | UEFI | Btrfs | ext4 | ReiserFS v3 | VFAT | XFS | |||
| GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | On BIOS/GPT configuration requires GRUB BIOS boot partition. |
| systemd-boot | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Cannot launch binaries from partitions other than ESP. |
| syslinux | Yes | Partial | Partial | without: multi-device volumes, compression, encryption | without: 64bit feature, encryption |
No | Yes | v4 on MBR only | No support for certain file system features [2] |
| EFISTUB | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| rEFInd | No | Yes | Yes | without encryption | without: 64bit feature, encryption |
without tail-packing feature | Yes | No | |
| Clover | emulates UEFI | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | No | Yes | No | Main target audience is Hackintosh users. |
| LILO | Yes | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | MBR only [3] | Deprecated. Does not support GUID Partition Table. |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | v4 only | Deprecated. Does not support GUID Partition Table. |
| NeoGRUB | Yes | No | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
See also
- Rod Smith - Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux
- Rod Smith - rEFInd, a fork or rEFIt
- Linux Kernel Documentation on EFISTUB
- Linux Kernel EFISTUB Git Commit
- Rod Smith's page on EFISTUB
- rEFInd Documentation for booting EFISTUB Kernels
Pages in category "Boot loaders"
The following 11 pages are in this category, out of 11 total.