Features
| Name | License | It can reside in | Boot from | Can boot | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBR only | 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 | 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 |
| AiR-Boot | GPL | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Akernelloader | GPL | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | GPL v2 | 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 | Boots NTLDR | Boots Windows Boot Manager | Boots GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | Proprietary | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | Proprietary | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Boot Loader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | GPL | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| GAG | GPL | 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 | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | NTLDR Chain-loading supported | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | NTLDR Chain-loading supported | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRUB4DOS | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gummiboot | LGPL 2.1 | UEFI only | UEFI only | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
| loadlin | GPL | 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 |
| 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 GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | NTLDR Chain-loading supported | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Smart Boot Manager | GPL | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| SPFdisk | Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| XOSL | GPL | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Proprietary | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader) | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Partial | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Software license | It can reside in | Boot from | Can boot | |||||||||||||||||
| MBR only | 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 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | Mac OS X | ||
| 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 ext2fs, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS, VSTa fs | FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, GNU/Linux | ELF | TFTP | gzip | |
| GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | i386(PC, coreboot, OLPC, Mac), PowerPC(Mac, Pegasos II), 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) | ? | ? | ? | |
| 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 | No | No | 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, ? | 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 | |
| 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 |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | PC DOS, MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS, B-right/V, Solaris, OpenStep, Plan 9, EOTA | ? | ? | ? | |
| bootload (Technologic Systems) | ? | ? | ARM | ? | Linux | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary |
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported filesystem | Supported OS | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of Boot Loaders
Famous quotes containing the word features:
““It looks as if
Some pallid thing had squashed its features flat
And its eyes shut with overeagerness
To see what people found so interesting
In one another, and had gone to sleep
Of its own stupid lack of understanding,
Or broken its white neck of mushroom stuff
Short off, and died against the windowpane.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“However much we may differ in the choice of the measures which should guide the administration of the government, there can be but little doubt in the minds of those who are really friendly to the republican features of our system that one of its most important securities consists in the separation of the legislative and executive powers at the same time that each is acknowledged to be supreme, in the will of the people constitutionally expressed.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)