Comparison of boot loaders
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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
[edit] Features
| 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 | OpenBSD | Mac OS X | ||
| Acronis OS Selector | Proprietary | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Boot Camp | Proprietary | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootIt Next Generation | Shareware | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Freeware[1] / Shareware | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| bootman | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | Yes | Yes | No (boots NTLDR) | No (boots Windows Boot Manager) | No (boots GRUB or LILO) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Boot Loader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | GPL | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| GAG | GPL | Yes (SafeBoot) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | No (calls GRUB or LILO) | No (calls bootloader) | No (calls bootloader) | No (calls bootloader) | ? |
| GRUB | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | Yes | No (calls FreeLoader) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRUB4DOS | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No (calls biosboot) | ? |
| loadlin | GPL | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Madboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| MasterBooter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | Proprietary | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | Freeware[2] / Shareware | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls GRUB or LILO) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Smart Boot Manager | Open source | 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 | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | GPL | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| zBoot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | Yes | No (calls GRUB or LILO) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader) | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Partial[3] | No (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 | OpenBSD | Mac OS X | ||
| Name | advanced command | scriptable | supported device | 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, ufs, minix, iso9660, udf, jfs, hfs, hfs+, afs, affs, sfs, xfs, reiserfs, tar, cpio, ntfs | Linux(pc, mac), FreeBSD(pc), OpenBSD(pc), NetBSD(pc) | ? | ? | ? | |
| LILO | No | No | ? | i386(pc) | ext2, ext3, ffs, ffs2, iso9660, jfs, minix, ntfs, reiserfs, vfat, etc... | ? | ? | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
| SYSLINUX | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Yaboot | ? | ? | ? | PowerPC(Open Firmware) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TFTP | ? | |
| 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, jffs2, cramfs, reiserfs, yaffs2, ubifs | 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 | |
| kboot | ? | ? | ? | i386 | 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, Windows2000, WindowsXP, Windows2003 | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
| boot0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | FreeBSD's bootloader |
| 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] | ? | ? | ? | |
| Rockbox bootloader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Rockbox | ? | ? | ? | |
| bootload (Technologic Systems) | ? | ? | ? | ARM | ? | Linux | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary |
| Name | advanced command | scriptable | supported device | supported architecture | supported filesystem | supported OS | supported executable | supported protocol | supported decompression | others |
[edit] Notes
- ^ The trial version only delays 15 minutes at each switch. No installation is required.
- ^ There isn't any feature limit for the free version, only a small "UNREGISTERED" text and a nag screen after some time.
- ^ http://www.reactos.org/en/newsletter_37.html - Freeloader can load Windows Server 2003 directly, as long as it is on a FAT32 partition
- ^ ELM - Multiple Boot Manager
[edit] External links
- FreeLoader in the ReactOS Wiki
- PLoP Let you boot legacy PCs from CD-ROM and USB without BIOS support
