Linux Booting Procedure

Sirak Kaewjamnong
How Linux boot?

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System startup
How computer startup?
 Booting is a bootstrapping process
that starts operating systems when
the user turns on a computer
system
 A boot sequence is the set of
operations the computer performs
when it is switched on that load an
operating system

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Booting sequence
1. Tern on
2. CPU jump to address of BIOS (0xFFFF0)
3. BIOS runs POST (Power-On Self Test)
4. Find bootale devices
5. Loads and execute boot sector form MBR
6. Load OS

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 BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
 BIOS refers to the software code run by a computer
when first powered on
 The primary function of BIOS is code program
embedded on a chip that recognises and controls
various devices that make up the computer.

BIOS on board
BIOS on screen

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Boot loader
MBR (Master Boot Record)
 OS is booted from a hard disk, where the
Master Boot Record (MBR) contains the
primary boot loader
 The MBR is a 512-byte sector, located in
the first sector on the disk (sector 1 of
cylinder 0, head 0)
 After the MBR is loaded into RAM, the BIOS
yields control to it.

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MBR (Master Boot Record)

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MBR (Master Boot Record)
 The first 446 bytes are the primary boot
loader, which contains both executable
code and error message text
 The next sixty-four bytes are the partition
table, which contains a record for each of
four partitions
 The MBR ends with two bytes that are
defined as the magic number (0xAA55).
The magic number serves as a validation
check of the MBR

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Extracting the MBR
 To see the contents of MBR, use this
command:
 # dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr.bin bs=512
count=1
 # od -xa mbr.bin
**The dd command, which needs to be run from
root, reads the first 512 bytes from /dev/hda (the
first Integrated Drive Electronics, or IDE drive) an
d writes them to the mbr.bin file.
**The od command prints the binary file in hex and
ASCII formats.

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Boot loader
 Boot loader could be more aptly called the
kernel loader. The task at this stage is to
load the Linux kernel
 Optional, initial RAM disk
 GRUB and LILO are the most popular Linux
boot loader.

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Other boot loader (Several OS)
 bootman
 GRUB
 LILO
 NTLDR
 XOSL
 BootX
 loadlin
 Gujin
 Boot Camp
 Syslinux
 GAG

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GRUB: GRand Unified
Bootloader
 GRUB is an operating system independant boot
loader
 A multiboot software packet from GNU
 Flexible command line interface
 File system access
 Support multiple executable format
 Support diskless system
 Download OS from network
 Etc.

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 GRUB boot process
1. The BIOS finds a bootable device (hard disk) and transfers
control to the master boot record
2. The MBR contains GRUB stage 1. Given the small size of the
MBR, Stage 1 just load the next stage of GRUB
3. GRUB Stage 1.5 is located in the first 30 kilobytes of hard
disk immediately following the MBR. Stage 1.5 loads Stage
2.
4. GRUB Stage 2 receives control, and displays to the user the
GRUB boot menu (where the user can manually specify the
boot parameters).
5. GRUB loads the user-selected (or default) kernel into
memory and passes control on to the kernel.

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Example GRUB config file

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LILO: LInux LOader
 Not depend on a specific file system
 Can boot from harddisk and floppy
 Up to 16 different images
 Must change LILO when kernel
image file or config file is changed

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Kernel
Kernel image
 The kernel is the central part in most computer
operating systems because of its task, which is
the management of the system's resources and
the communication between hardware and
software components
 Kernel is always store on memory until computer
is tern off
 Kernel image is not an executable kernel, but a
compress kernel image
 zImage size less than 512 KB
 bzImage size greater than 512 KB

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Task of kernel
 Process management
 Memory management
 Device management
 System call

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Major functions flow for Linux kernel
boot

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Init process
 The first thing the kernel does is to
execute init program
 Init is the root/parent of all processes
executing on Linux
 The first processes that init starts is a
script /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
 Based on the appropriate run-level, scripts
are executed to start various processes to
run the system and make it functional

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The Linux Init Processes
 The init process is identified by process id "1“
 Init is responsible for starting system processes
as defined in the /etc/inittab file
 Init typically will start multiple instances of
"getty" which waits for console logins which spaw
n one's user shell process
 Upon shutdown, init controls the sequence and
processes for shutdown

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System processes
Process ID Description
0 The Scheduler
1 The init process
2 kflushd
3 kupdate
4 kpiod
5 kswapd
6 mdrecoveryd

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Inittab file
 The inittab file describes which processes
are started at bootup and during normal
operation
 /etc/init.d/boot
 /etc/init.d/rc
 The computer will be booted to the
runlevel as defined by the initdefault
directive in the /etc/inittab file
 id:5:initdefault:

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Runlevels
 A runlevel is a software
configuration of the system which
allows only a selected group of
processes to exist
 The processes spawned by init for
each of these runlevels are defined
in the /etc/inittab file
 Init can be in one of eight runlevels:
0-6

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 Runlevels
Runlevel Scripts State
Directory
(Red Hat/Fedor
a Core)
0 /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/ shutdown/halt system
1 /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/ Single user mode
2 /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/ Multiuser with no network services exported
3 /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/ Default text/console only start. Full multiuser
4 /etc/rc.d/rc4.d/ Reserved for local use. Also X-windows (Slackware/
BSD)
5 /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/ XDM X-windows GUI mode (Redhat/System V)
6 /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/ Reboot
s or S Single user/Maintenance mode (Slackware)

M Multiuser mode (Slackware)

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rc#.d files
 rc#.d files are the scripts for a
given run level that run during boot
and shutdown
 The scripts are found in the
directory /etc/rc.d/rc#.d/ where the
symbol # represents the run level

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init.d
 Deamon is a background process
 init.d is a directory that admin can
start/stop individual demons by cha
nging on it
 /etc/rc.d/init.d/ (Red Hat/Fedora )
 /etc/init.d/ (S.u.s.e.)

 /etc/init.d/ (Debian)

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Start/stop deamon
 Admin can issuing the command
and either the start, stop, status,
restart or reload option
 i.e. to stop the web server:
 cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/
 (or /etc/init.d/ for S.u.s.e. and Debian)

 httpd stop

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Linux files structure
Linux files structure

http://www.secguru.com/files/linux_file_structure 32
FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 All directories are grouped under the root
entry "/"
 root - The home directory for the root user
 home - Contains the user's home directories
along with directories for services
 ftp
 HTTP
 samba

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FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 bin - Commands needed during booting
up that might be needed by normal users
 sbin - Like bin but commands are not
intended for normal users. Commands run
by LINUX.
 proc - This filesystem is not on a disk. It
is a virtual filesystem that exists in the
kernels imagination which is memory
 1 - A directory with info about process number
1. Each process has a directory below proc.

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FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 usr - Contains all commands, libraries, man pages,
games and static files for normal operation.
 bin - Almost all user commands. some commands are in /bin
or /usr/local/bin.
 sbin - System admin commands not needed on the root
filesystem. e.g., most server programs.
 include - Header files for the C programming language.
Should be below /user/lib for consistency.
 lib - Unchanging data files for programs and subsystems
 local - The place for locally installed software and other files.
 man - Manual pages
 info - Info documents
 doc - Documentation
 tmp
 X11R6 - The X windows system files. There is a directory
similar to usr below this directory.
 X386 - Like X11R6 but for X11 release 5
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FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 boot - Files used by the bootstrap loader, LILO.
Kernel images are often kept here.
 lib - Shared libraries needed by the programs on the
root filesystem
 modules - Loadable kernel modules, especially those
needed to boot the system after disasters.
 dev - Device files
 etc - Configuration files specific to the machine.
 skel - When a home directory is created it is
initialized with files from this directory
 sysconfig - Files that configure the linux system for
devices.

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FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 var - Contains files that change for mail, news,
printers log files, man pages, temp files
 file
 lib - Files that change while the system is running normally
 local - Variable data for programs installed in /usr/local.
 lock - Lock files. Used by a program to indicate it is using a
particular device or file
 log - Log files from programs such as login and syslog which
logs all logins and logouts.
 run - Files that contain information about the system that is
valid until the system is next booted
 spool - Directories for mail, printer spools, news and other
spooled work.
 tmp - Temporary files that are large or need to exist for
longer than they should in /tmp.
 catman - A cache for man pages that are formatted on
demand

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FSSTND : (Filesystem standard)
 mnt - Mount points for temporary
mounts by the system
administrator.
 tmp - Temporary files. Programs
running after bootup should use
/var/tmp

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References
 http://en.wikipedia.org/
 http://www-
128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-
linuxboot/
 http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialInitPr
ocess.html
 http://www.pycs.net/lateral/stories/23.html
 http://www.secguru.com/files/linux_file_structure
 http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/
commands/linux_crfilest.html

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