boot(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual boot(7)
NAME
boot - System bootup process based on UNIX System V Release 4
DESCRIPTION
The bootup process (or "boot sequence") varies in details among sys-
tems, but can be roughly divided into phases controlled by the follow-
ing components:
(1) hardware
(2) operating system (OS) loader
(3) kernel
(4) root user-space process (init and inittab)
(5) boot scripts
Each of these is described below in more detail.
Hardware
After power-on or hard reset, control is given to a program stored in
read-only memory (normally PROM); for historical reasons involving the
personal computer, this program is often called "the BIOS".
This program normally performs a basic self-test of the machine and ac-
cesses nonvolatile memory to read further parameters. This memory in
the PC is battery-backed CMOS memory, so most people refer to it as
"the CMOS"; outside of the PC world, it is usually called "the NVRAM"
(nonvolatile RAM).
The parameters stored in the NVRAM vary among systems, but as a mini-
mum, they should specify which device can supply an OS loader, or at
least which devices may be probed for one; such a device is known as
"the boot device". The hardware boot stage loads the OS loader from a
fixed position on the boot device, and then transfers control to it.
Note: The device from which the OS loader is read may be attached via
a network, in which case the details of booting are further
specified by protocols such as DHCP, TFTP, PXE, Etherboot, etc.
OS loader
The main job of the OS loader is to locate the kernel on some device,
load it, and run it. Most OS loaders allow interactive use, in order
to enable specification of an alternative kernel (maybe a backup in
case the one last compiled isn't functioning) and to pass optional pa-
rameters to the kernel.
In a traditional PC, the OS loader is located in the initial 512-byte
block of the boot device; this block is known as "the MBR" (Master Boot
Record).
In most systems, the OS loader is very limited due to various con-
straints. Even on non-PC systems, there are some limitations on the
size and complexity of this loader, but the size limitation of the PC
MBR (512 bytes, including the partition table) makes it almost impossi-
ble to squeeze much functionality into it.
Therefore, most systems split the role of loading the OS between a pri-
mary OS loader and a secondary OS loader; this secondary OS loader may
be located within a larger portion of persistent storage, such as a
disk partition.
In Linux, the OS loader is often grub(8) (an alternative is lilo(8)).
Kernel
When the kernel is loaded, it initializes various components of the
computer and operating system; each portion of software responsible for
such a task is usually consider "a driver" for the applicable compo-
nent. The kernel starts the virtual memory swapper (it is a kernel
process, called "kswapd" in a modern Linux kernel), and mounts some
filesystem at the root path, /.
Some of the parameters that may be passed to the kernel relate to these
activities (for example, the default root filesystem can be overrid-
den); for further information on Linux kernel parameters, read boot-
param(7).
Only then does the kernel create the initial userland process, which is
given the number 1 as its PID (process ID). Traditionally, this
process executes the program /sbin/init, to which are passed the para-
meters that haven't already been handled by the kernel.
Root user-space process
Note: The following description applies to an OS based on UNIX System
V Release 4. However, a number of widely used systems have
adopted a related but fundamentally different approach known as
systemd(1), for which the bootup process is detailed in its as-
sociated bootup(7).
When /sbin/init starts, it reads /etc/inittab for further instructions.
This file defines what should be run when the /sbin/init program is in-
structed to enter a particular run level, giving the administrator an
easy way to establish an environment for some usage; each run level is
associated with a set of services (for example, run level S is single-
user mode, and run level 2 entails running most network services).
The administrator may change the current run level via init(1), and
query the current run level via runlevel(8).
However, since it is not convenient to manage individual services by
editing this file, /etc/inittab only bootstraps a set of scripts that
actually start/stop the individual services.
Boot scripts
Note: The following description applies to an OS based on UNIX System
V Release 4. However, a number of widely used systems (Slack-
ware Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD) have a somewhat different scheme
for boot scripts.
For each managed service (mail, nfs server, cron, etc.), there is a
single startup script located in a specific directory (/etc/init.d in
most versions of Linux). Each of these scripts accepts as a single ar-
gument the word "start" (causing it to start the service) or the word
"stop" (causing it to stop the service). The script may optionally ac-
cept other "convenience" parameters (e.g., "restart" to stop and then
start, "status" to display the service status, etc.). Running the
script without parameters displays the possible arguments.
Sequencing directories
To make specific scripts start/stop at specific run levels and in a
specific order, there are sequencing directories, normally of the form
/etc/rc[0-6S].d. In each of these directories, there are links (usu-
ally symbolic) to the scripts in the /etc/init.d directory.
A primary script (usually /etc/rc) is called from inittab(5); this pri-
mary script calls each service's script via a link in the relevant se-
quencing directory. Each link whose name begins with 'S' is called
with the argument "start" (thereby starting the service). Each link
whose name begins with 'K' is called with the argument "stop" (thereby
stopping the service).
To define the starting or stopping order within the same run level, the
name of a link contains an order-number. Also, for clarity, the name
of a link usually ends with the name of the service to which it refers.
For example, the link /etc/rc2.d/S80sendmail starts the sendmail(8)
service on run level 2. This happens after /etc/rc2.d/S12syslog is run
but before /etc/rc2.d/S90xfs is run.
To manage these links is to manage the boot order and run levels; under
many systems, there are tools to help with this task (e.g., chkcon-
fig(8)).
Boot configuration
A program that provides a service is often called a "daemon". Usually,
a daemon may receive various command-line options and parameters. To
allow a system administrator to change these inputs without editing an
entire boot script, some separate configuration file is used, and is
located in a specific directory where an associated boot script may
find it (/etc/sysconfig on older Red Hat systems).
In older UNIX systems, such a file contained the actual command line
options for a daemon, but in modern Linux systems (and also in HP-UX),
it just contains shell variables. A boot script in /etc/init.d reads
and includes its configuration file (that is, it "sources" its configu-
ration file) and then uses the variable values.
FILES
/etc/init.d/, /etc/rc[S0-6].d/, /etc/sysconfig/
SEE ALSO
init(1), systemd(1), inittab(5), bootparam(7), bootup(7), runlevel(8),
shutdown(8)
Linux man-pages 6.7 2023-10-31 boot(7)
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