Minimal Linux Bootloader (2018)

D4ckard

I love MBR hacking, it's so fun to see. Cf. sector lisp [1] and OSle [2].

[1]: https://github.com/jart/sectorlisp

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43866585

1vuio0pswjnm7

This is Bootloader ID #11 with comments

See:

http://sebastian-plotz.blogspot.de

https://docs.kernel.org/arch/x86/boot.html

secure

I use this bootloader in gokrazy and blogged about debugging a limitation in it a while ago: https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2024-02-11-minimal-linux...

not_your_vase

  > Blog nicht gefunden.

Ahhh, after looking harder, I see the typo

https://sebastian-plotz.blogspot.com/

6SixTy

Kind of cool, but being exclusively for BIOS/MBR kind of kills my excitement.

seba_dos1

With EFI, you can just boot straight into Linux without any bootloader.

NewJazz

Technically there's a pe shim, no?

cyberax

You can just package Linux as a PE executable.

nine_k

Yes. BIOS. Real mode. Not that I've been missing them these 30 years, and they are still in place. It gives a weird feeling.

I mean, if you target ancient baroque hardware like e.g. ZX Spectrum, you specifically target an ancient machine. But this is expected to work on any modern x86 hardware, while it feels like code for a 80286, and likely would run there. And this ancient stuff is still supported and actively used.

micw

Do I see it right that I need to recompile and reinstall it on each new kernel?

M95D

I don't see how this is better than lilo.

6SixTy

It's not supposed to be better than lilo, just code golf. Limine is pretty much the only serious bootloader gunning for the spot lilo/elilo was going for.

WalterGR

It’s not meant to be full-featured. It shows how to write a bootloader that’s smaller than 512 bytes.

null

[deleted]

HN

Minimal Linux Bootloader (2018)

Minimal Linux Bootloader (2018)