Comparison of boot loaders
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available boot loaders.
Features
Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the very first boot sector of a mass storage device. The column VBR (Volume Boot Record) refers to the ability of the boot loader to be stored in the first sector of any partition on a mass storage device.
| Name | License | Can reside in | Can boot from | Can boot | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | 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 | Mac OS X | ||
| 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 | Yes | 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 |
| GRUB4DOS | GPLv2+ | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | GPLv2 | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gummiboot | LGPL 2.1 | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager[1] | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes[1] |
| LILO | BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | 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[2] |
| 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 |
| rEFInd | GPLv3/BSD license | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | 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+ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module | ? |
| XOSL | GPLv2 | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Proprietary | Yes | No | 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[3] | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Software license | Can reside in | Can boot from | Can boot | ||||||||||||||||||
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | 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 | Mac OS X | ||
Technical information
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported filesystem | Supported OS | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (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 | x86 (PC, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC, Mac), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (Mac, Pegasos II, IBM), MIPS, SPARC (SPARC v9), QEMU | 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) | Multiboot and others | ? | ? | |
| LILO | No | No | x86 (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 | x86 (PC) | ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, ufs 1/2, 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, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MacOSX | ? | ? | ? | |
| 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 | |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | PPC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, ColdFire, IXP, Leon2, m68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, NIOS, NIOS2, PXA, x86, StrongARM, SH2, SH3, SH4, ... | FAT12(RO), FAT16, FAT32, 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, ext2, ext3, ext4, bpkfs, cramfs, NFS, EFI, efivarfs, ubifs | Linux | ELF, U-Boot image format | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo | |
| kboot | ? | ? | x86, 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 | x86 | 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 | x86 (PC) | ? | Windows | ? | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | NTFS | Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
| FREELDR | No | No | x86 (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 |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | PC DOS, MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS, B-right/V, Solaris, OpenStep, Plan 9, EOTA[4] | ? | ? | ? | |
| 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 2 Rod Smith, "Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Using gummiboot", 5 November 2012.
- ↑ http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Chain0
- ↑ http://www.reactos.org/newsletter-37 - Freeloader can load Windows Server 2003 directly, as long as it is on a FAT32 partition
- ↑ ELM - Multiple Boot Manager
External links
- FreeLoader in the ReactOS Wiki
- PLoP Let you boot legacy PCs from CD-ROM and USB without BIOS support
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