Software:Comparison of bootloaders
From HandWiki
Short description: Different bootloaders
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
(Learn how and when to remove this template message)
|
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
General information
| Name | Developer / Publisher | Current version | Initial release date | Latest release date | License | Cost | Website / documentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | Acronis International GmbH | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | $49.95 (personal use) $79.99 (commercial, per seat) $299.99 (server) |
Official website |
| Barebox | Sascha Hauer the barebox community |
? | ? | ? | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | Official website |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | MIT | No cost | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | Apple Inc. | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | bundled with macOS | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | Benjamin Herrenschmidt | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | No cost | ? |
| Clover (fork of rEFIt) | https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors] | 5157 | 2013-10-03 | 29.06.2024 | GPLv2/BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| Das U-Boot | DENX Software Engineering | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website | |||
| GRUB Legacy | GNU Project | 08.05.2005 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | |||
| GNU GRUB | 1995 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata. | |||
| Grub2Win | Drummerdp | 2.4.2.4 | 2010 | April 2, 2025 | GPLv3 | No cost | Official website |
| GRUB4DOS | 31.03.2009 | GPL-2.0-only[lower-alpha 1] | Official website | ||||
| iBoot | Apple Inc. | iBoot-11881.62.2~1 | June 29, 2007 | December 9, 2024 | Proprietary | ||
| LILO | BSD-3-Clause | ||||||
| Limine | mintsuki | April 6, 2020 | BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website | ||
| loadlin | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||||||
| NTLDR | Microsoft | July 27, 1993 (Windows NT 3.1) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
| RedBoot | GPL-2.0-or-later (eCos license) | ||||||
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | Roderick W. Smith | 0.14.4.2 | 2012 | 06.04.2024 | GPL-3.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| rEFIt | Christoph Pfisterer | 0.14 | March 2, 2006 | 07.03.2010 | GPL-2.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| SYSLINUX | 06.10.2014 | GPL-2.0-or-later | |||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||||
| TianoCore EDK II | BSD-2-Clause | ||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | Microsoft | January 30, 2007 (Windows Vista) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
| wolfBoot | wolfSSL | December 14, 2015 | August 02, 2025 | LGPL-3.0-or-later | Official website | ||
| XOSL | 20.08.2002 | GPL-2.0-only |
Technical information
Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the first 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.
Storage medium support
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| BootKey | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| BootManager | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
| BootX (Apple) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Limine | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| loadlin | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| SPFdisk | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ?
|
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| wolfBoot | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
Operating system support
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
| Acronis OS Selector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Calls bootloader for some kernels | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| LILO | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
| loadlin | with MEMDISK | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Limine | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Yes | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader |
| NTLDR | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Calls GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | ? | Calls Darwin bootloader[2] |
| RedBoot | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| SPFdisk | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module [1] | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager[3] | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes[3] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| wolfBoot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| XOSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
File-system support
Non-journaled
| Name | FAT | Minix | ext2 | HFS | AFFS | F2FS | YAFFS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 | ||||||
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine[4][5] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | Yes[lower-alpha 1] | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Journaled
| Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | patch[lower-alpha 1] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | No | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | No | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes[lower-alpha 3] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| rEFInd | Partial[lower-alpha 4] | Yes[lower-alpha 4] | Yes[lower-alpha 4] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 4] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Partial[lower-alpha 5] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
- ↑ Debian patch
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 GNU GRUB 0.97 manual
- ↑ Requires a TSR, such as NTFSDOS
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 rEFInd Features
- ↑ https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Filesystem#ext
Copy-on-write
| Name | btrfs | APFS | ZFS | NILFS | ReFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| Barebox | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No[6] |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No[6] |
| GRUB Legacy | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| GRUB4DOS | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| Limine[7][8] | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No[6] |
| loadlin | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| NTLDR | No | No | No | No | No[6] |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| rEFInd | Yes[lower-alpha 1] | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| Syslinux | Yes | No | No | No | No[6] |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | No | ? | ? | No[6] |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[6] |
Read-only
| Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 1] | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 3] | ? | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 3] | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | No | No | Yes[lower-alpha 4] | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | ? | ? | Yes[lower-alpha 5] | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
- ↑ https://git.lumina-sensum.com/LuminaSensum/barebox/blob/master/Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.rst
- ↑ https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/commit/c51006130370b48b7eb5a93ada745385aa27f6bf
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/stage2/fsys_iso9660.c?h=grub-legacy
- ↑ Requires DOS support / TSR, such as MSCDEX
- ↑ rEFInd Features
Other features
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |
| GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others[9] | TFTP, HTTP[10] | gzip, xz[11] | |
| LILO | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), MIPS, PowerPC (OpenFirmware), SPARC v9 (OpenFirmware) | FreeBSD ELF kernel image, Multiboot (incomplete, for Xen image only)[12] | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |
| kexec (Linux) | Depending on user space | Depending on user space | x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V[13] | Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image | Depending on configuration and user space | N/A | The kexec system call can start another kernel, replacing the current running Linux, thus turning a Linux-based operating system into a fancy bootloader. |
| loadlin | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | gzip | |
| SYSLINUX | via cmd.c32 module | via lua.c32 module | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage,[14] Multiboot,[15] MBR image[16] | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |
| Yaboot | No | No | PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | No | |
| RedBoot | Yes | yes (boot only) | ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | PowerPC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, ColdFire, IXP, Leon2, m68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, NIOS, NIOS2, PXA, x86, RISC-V, StrongARM, SH2, SH3, SH4, ... | EFI, ELF, U-Boot image format, Linux zImage, raw | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lzma | |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | ARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPC | ELF, U-Boot image format | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo | |
| NTLDR | No | No | x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
| wolfBoot | ? | ? | ARM Cortex-M, ARM Cortex-R, ARM Cortex-A, Intel x86, RISC-V RV32, PowerPC, Renesas RH, TriCore | Raw binary, ELF, UEFI | TPM 2.0, PKCS#11. SPI, I²C, UART | Custom delta-update based on Bentley-Mcilroy compression algorithm | |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
| Limine | Yes | No | x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch[17][18] | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage[19] | TFTP | gzip |
Notes
- ↑ "stage2/dosstart.S". 2014-10-12. https://github.com/chenall/grub4dos/blob/3c1d05f39e49ec1d7543caa825df00068b96620b/stage2/dosstart.S. "Since we have copied the Linux kernel code and the Linux kernel follows GPL2, so only GPL2 is adoptable and it rules here."
- ↑ "Chain0 - OSx86". http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Chain0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rod Smith, "Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Using gummiboot", 5 November 2012.
- ↑ Larabel, Michael (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". Phoronix. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Limine-9.0-Released.
- ↑ Schürrmann, Tim (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". Linux-Magazin. https://www.linux-magazin.de/news/bootloader-limine-9-0-0-entfernt-unterstuetzung-fuer-ext-dateisysteme/.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 "Resilient File System (ReFS) overview" (in en-us). https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/refs/refs-overview.
- ↑ Larabel, Michael (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". Phoronix. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Limine-9.0-Released.
- ↑ Schürrmann, Tim (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". Linux-Magazin. https://www.linux-magazin.de/news/bootloader-limine-9-0-0-entfernt-unterstuetzung-fuer-ext-dateisysteme/.
- ↑ "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Supported kernels". Free Software Foundation, Inc.. https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Supported-kernels.html.
- ↑ "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Device syntax". Free Software Foundation, Inc.. https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Device-syntax.html. "If you enabled the network support, the special drives (protocol[,server]) are also available. Supported protocols are ‘http’ and ‘tftp’."
- ↑ "GNU GRUB Manual 2.02: Features". https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Features.html.
- ↑ "An experiment to make a Multiboot-compliant kFreeBSD i386 image". Rivoreo. https://sourceforge.net/p/hacking-freebsd/wiki/Multiboot%20kFreeBSD/. "Since 10.3-RELEASE, the BTX loader included in distribution supports Multiboot, but only for Xen (the Xen image is a Multiboot-compliant kernel). ... Because this multiboot support in BTX loader is designed for Xen only, it requires the first Multiboot module be original kFreeBSD image. Trying to load a Multiboot kernel without loading any Multiboot modules would resulted in BTX loader complaining 'No FreeBSD kernel provided, aborting'."
- ↑ "Documentation for Kdump - The kexec-based Crash Dumping Solution" (text/plain). https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt.
- ↑ "Can SYSLINUX Handle Large Kernels?". https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=SYSLINUX#Can_SYSLINUX_Handle_Large_Kernels.3F.
- ↑ "Mboot.c32 - Syslinux Wiki" (in en). https://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mboot.c32.
- ↑ "Comboot/chain.c32". https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Comboot/chain.c32.
- ↑ Larabel, Michael (2024-08-03). "Limine 8.0 Bootloader Released With LoongArch Support". Phoronix. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Limine-8.0-Bootloader.
- ↑ Schürrmann, Tim (2024-08-06). "Alternativer Bootloader Limine 8.0.1 unterstützt LoongArch64-Systeme". Linux-Magazin. https://www.linux-magazin.de/news/alternativer-bootloader-limine-8-0-1-unterstuetzt-loongarch64-systeme/.
- ↑ Holwerda, Thom (2024-08-04). "Limine: a modern, advanced, portable, multiprotocol bootloader and boot manager". OSNews. https://www.osnews.com/story/140407/limine-a-modern-advanced-portable-multiprotocol-bootloader-and-boot-manager/.
