Comparison of boot loaders

1
Comparison of boot loaders
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available boot loaders.
Features
Name License Can reside in Can boot from Can boot
MBR
only
MBR
/
VBR
ESP
Floppy
Hard
disk
Second
Hard
disk
Logical
partitions
CD-ROM Floppy USB Zip
LAN
MS-DOS Windows
9x/Me
Windows
NT series
Windows
Vista/7/8
Linux ReactOS MenuetOS *BSD MacOSX
Acronis OS
Selector
Proprietary
? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
AiR-Boot GPLv3 Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
AKernelLoader GPLv2 Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Barebox GPLv2 Yes No ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Boot Camp Proprietary ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes
BootIt Next
Generation
Proprietary
? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
BootKey Proprietary No No ? Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
bootman
MIT
Yes No ? No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? No Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Calls GRUB
or LILO
? ? ? ?
BootX (Apple) Proprietary ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
BootX (Linux) Proprietary ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Darwin Boot
Loader
APSL 2.0
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes
Das U-Boot
GPLv2
? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Yes
(FreeBSD)
?
GAG
GPLv2+
Yes
(SafeBoot)
No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Calls GRUB
or LILO
Calls
bootloader
Calls
bootloader
Calls
bootloader
No
GRUB Legacy
GPLv2+
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes
Calls
FreeLoader
Yes Yes Yes
GNU GRUB
GPLv3
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes
Calls
FreeLoader
Yes Yes Yes
GRUB4DOS
GPLv2+
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes ? ? ? ?
Gujin [1]
GPLv2
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Comparison of boot loaders
2
Gummiboot
LGPL 2.1
No No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No No
Windows
Server
2013
64bits
with
UEFI
only
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
[2]
Yes ? ?
UEFI
only
Yes
LILO
BSD
license
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Calls
NTLDR
? Yes ? ?
Calls
biosboot
(FreeBSD,
PC-BSD,
...)
?
loadlin GPLv2+ No No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No ? ?
MasterBooter Proprietary Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ?
NTLDR
Proprietary
No Yes ? Yes Yes ? No No Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes No
Calls
GRUB4DOS
? ? ?
Calls Darwin
bootloader
[3]
OSL2000 Boot
Manager
Proprietary
Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls GRUB
or LILO
? ? ? ?
PLoP
Bootmanager
Proprietary
Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls GRUB
or LILO
? ? ? ?
RedBoot
mod
GPLv2+
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes
Calls
FreeLoader
Yes Yes Yes
Smart Boot
Manager
GPLv2+
Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes ?
SPFdisk GPLv2+ Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SYSLINUX
GPLv2+
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes ? Yes ? ?
XOSL GPLv2 No No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Windows Boot
Manager
Proprietary
No Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Calls
NTLDR
Yes
Calls GRUB
or LILO
? ? ? ?
FreeLoader
(ReactOS Boot
Loader)
GPLv2+
No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Partial
[4]
Calls
Windows
Boot
Manager
Yes Yes ? ? ?
Name Software
license
Can reside in Can boot from Can boot
MBR
only
MBR
/
VBR
ESP Floppy Hard
disk
Second
hard
disk
Logical
partitions
CD-ROM Floppy USB Zip LAN MS-DOS Windows
9x/Me
Windows
NT series
Windows
Vista/7/8
Linux ReactOS MenuetOS *BSD MacOSX
Comparison of boot loaders
3
Technical information
Name Advanced
command
Scriptable Supported
architecture
Supported
filesystem
Supported OS Supported
executable
Supported
protocol
Supported
decompression
Others
GRUB Legacy
Yes No
i386 (PC) FAT16, FAT32,
MINIX fs,
Linux ext2,
ext3, ext4,
ReiserFS, JFS,
XFS, VSTa fs,
Btrfs
FreeBSD,
NetBSD,
OpenBSD,
GNU/Linux
ELF TFTP gzip
GRUB 2
Yes Yes
i386 (PC,
coreboot, OLPC,
Mac), PowerPC
(Mac, Pegasos II,
IBM), Sun
UltraSPARC
(SPARC v9)
ext2, ext3, ext4,
btrfs, zfs, ufs,
minix, iso9660,
udf, jfs, hfs,
hfs+, afs, affs,
sfs, xfs, reiserfs,
tar, cpio, NTFS,
FAT16, FAT32
Linux (PC,
mac), FreeBSD
(PC),
OpenBSD
(PC), NetBSD
(PC),
Windows7
? ? ?
LILO No No i386 (PC) agnostic ? ? ? bzip2, gzip
LOLO (Logic
PD)
Yes Yes
ARM7, ARM9,
ARM11,
Cortex-A8,
StrongARM, SH,
ColdFire
FAT16, FAT32,
YAFFS1,
YAFFS2
Linux, WinCE ELF,
binary,
BIN
(WinCE),
SREC
TFTP Supported
devices:
MCF54xx,
MCF5329,
MCF5373,
LLH7A400,
LLH7A404,
LLH79520,
LLH79524,
LSH7727,
LSH7750,
LSH7760,
PXA270,
PXA320,
IMX31,
IMX27,
OMAP35xx,
OMAP37xx
SYSLINUX
via
cmd.c32
module
via
lua.c32
module
i386 (PC) ext2, ext3, ext4,
btrfs, FAT16,
FAT32,
iso9660, udf,
NTFS (since
4.06), ?
GNU/Linux None TFTP gzip, bzip2,
lzo, zip, lzma,
?
AKernelLoader No No x86 (PC) FAT32,ext2,ext3 GNU/Linux ELF,Binary ? ?
Yaboot
No No
PowerPC (Open
Firmware)
ext2, ext3, ext4,
hfs
GNU/Linux, ? ? ? ?
RedBoot yes yes (boot
only)
ARM, ColdFire,
H8300, x86,
Freescale/Motorola
68000, MIPS,
PPC, SH, SPARC,
SPARCLite
JFFS2 Linux, eCos ELF TFTP,
serial
(X-modem)
gzip
Comparison of boot loaders
4
Das U-Boot
Yes Yes
PPC, ARM,
AVR32, Blackfin,
ColdFire, IXP,
Leon2, m68k,
MicroBlaze,
MIPS, NIOS,
NIOS2, PXA, x86,
StrongARM, SH2,
SH3, SH4, ...
FAT, VFAT,
ext2, ext3, ext4,
jffs2, cramfs,
reiserfs, yaffs2,
ubifs, nfs
4_4bsd, Artos,
Dell, Esix,
FreeBSD, Irix,
Linux,
LynxOS, NCR,
NetBSD,
OpenBSD,
pSOS, QNX,
RTEMS, SCO,
Solaris, SVR4,
U-Boot,
VXworks
ELF,
U-Boot
image
format
TFTP,
NFS, serial
(S-Record,
Y-Modem,
Kermit
binary
protocol)
bzip2, gzip,
lzma
Barebox
Yes Yes
ARM, Blackfin,
NIOS2, MIPS,
x86, PPC
FAT, VFAT,
cramfs, nfs
Linux ? TFTP,
NFS, serial
(S-Record,
Y-Modem)
bzip2, gzip,
lzma
kboot ? ? i386, PowerPC64 most supported
by Linux Kernel
(ext2, ext3,
ext4, reiserfs,
xfs, jfs, etc..)
Linux ? HTTP,
FTP, TFTP
? SSH, NFS
support.
kexec-based
bootloader.
Runnix ? ? ? ? Linux ? ? ? kexec and
SYSLINUX
based
bootloader.
kexec-loader
No No
i386 most supported
by Linux Kernel
(ext2, ext3,
ext4, reiserfs,
xfs, jfs, etc..)
Linux/multiboot ? No
networking
gzip (for
kernel
modules)
Kernel/multiboot
module support
NTLDR
No No
i386 (PC) ? Windows ? ? ? default
bootloader on
Windows NT
FREELDR
No No
i386 (PC), ARM,
PowerPC
ext2, FAT12,
FAT16, FAT32,
ISO, NTFS
ReactOS,
Linux,
Windows NT
4.0, Windows
2000, Windows
XP, Windows
2003
? ? ? clone of NTLDR
boot0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FreeBSD's
master boot
record
extipl ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? IBM IPL upper
compatible
Comparison of boot loaders
5
Multiple Boot
Manager
? ? ? ?
PC DOS,
MS-DOS,
Windows,
OS/2, Linux,
FreeBSD,
NetBSD,
OpenBSD,
BeOS,
B-right/V,
Solaris,
OpenStep, Plan
9, EOTA
[5]
? ? ?
bootload
(Technologic
Systems)
? ? ARM ? Linux ? ? ? Proprietary
Name Advanced
command
Scriptable Supported
architecture
Supported
filesystem
Supported OS Supported
executable
Supported
protocol
Supported
decompression
Others
Notes
[1] http:/ / gujin.sourceforge. net/
[2] Rod Smith, " Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Using gummiboot (http:/ / www. rodsbooks. com/ efi-bootloaders/ gummiboot. html)", .
[3] http:/ / wiki. osx86project. org/ wiki/ index.php/ Chain0
[4] http:/ / www. reactos.org/ newsletter-37 - Freeloader can load Windows Server 2003 directly, as long as it is on a FAT32 partition
[5] ELM - Multiple Boot Manager (http:/ / elm-chan. org/ fsw/ mbm/ mbm_e. html)
External links
FreeLoader in the ReactOS Wiki (http:/ / www. reactos. org/ wiki/ FreeLoader)
PLoP (http:/ / www. plop. at/ ) Let you boot legacy PCs from CD-ROM and USB without BIOS support
Article Sources and Contributors
6
Article Sources and Contributors
Comparison of boot loaders Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=600060800 Contributors: Ale5000, Avocado27, Blob, Comet--berkeley, Computer Guru, DMahalko,
Daemorris, Dfatwp, DrSeehas, Ekkt0r, Fabiwanne, Fintler, Frantony, Frap, Gronky, Gudeldar, Guthardt, Hoestmelankoli, Inclusivedisjunction, Jaycee55, Johan et Pirlouit, KY69RJ, Kkron,
Kundor, LaudanumCoda, Marco.caminati, Metalim, Mfldelton, Michaeldadmum, Micro-mi, Mjbauer95, Mortense, OlavN, PhiLiP, Pmlineditor, Ragesoss, Requestion, Rofrol, S8321414, Sertion,
Solidsnake204, Southen, Techtonik, Thumperward, Treutwein, Tyutyutyu696, Unixi, ViperSnake151, WHeimbigner, Wget, Xerces8, Yono, 145 anonymous edits
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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