Chapter 2. The GRUB Boot Loader
When a computer with Red Hat Enterprise Linux is turned on, the operating system is loaded
into memory by a special program called a boot
loader. A boot loader usually exists on the system's primary
hard drive (or other media device) and has the sole responsibility of
loading the Linux kernel with its required files or (in some cases) other
operating systems into memory.
Each architecture capable of running Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a different boot
loader. The following table lists the boot loaders available for each
architecture:
| Architecture
| Boot Loaders
|
|---|
| AMD®
AMD64
|
GRUB
|
| IBM®
eServer™ iSeries™
|
OS/400®
|
| IBM®
eServer™ pSeries™
|
YABOOT
|
| IBM® S/390®
|
z/IPL
|
| IBM®
eServer™ zSeries®
|
z/IPL
|
| Intel® Itanium™
|
ELILO
|
| x86
|
GRUB
|
Table 2-1. Boot Loaders by Architecture
This chapter discusses commands and configuration options for the GRUB
boot loader included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the x86 architecture.
