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Comparison of bootloaders
Different bootloaders
Summary
Different bootloaders
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 | Barebox | BootManager | BootX (Apple) | BootX (Linux) | Clover (fork of rEFIt) | Das U-Boot | GRUB Legacy | GNU GRUB | Grub2Win | GRUB4DOS | iBoot | LILO | Limine | loadlin | NTLDR | RedBoot | rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | rEFIt | SYSLINUX | systemd-boot / Gummiboot | TianoCore EDK II | Windows Boot Manager | wolfBoot | XOSL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis International GmbH | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sascha Hauer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| the barebox community | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple Inc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Benjamin Herrenschmidt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors] | 5157 | /BSD-2-Clause | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DENX Software Engineering | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GNU Project | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drummerdp | 2.4.2.4 | 2010 | April 2, 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple Inc. | iBoot-11881.62.2~1 | June 29, 2007 | December 9, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| mintsuki | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft | (Windows NT 3.1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| mod (eCos license) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Roderick W. Smith | 0.14.4.2 | /BSD-3-Clause | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Christoph Pfisterer | 0.14 | /BSD-3-Clause | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft | (Windows Vista) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| wolfSSL |
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 | Barebox | BootKey | BootManager | BootX (Apple) | BootX (Linux) | Das U-Boot | GRUB Legacy | GNU GRUB | GRUB4DOS | iBoot | LILO | Limine | loadlin | NTLDR | RedBoot | rEFInd | rEFIt (not maintained) | SPFdisk | SYSLINUX | systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Windows Boot Manager | wolfBoot | XOSL | 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 | Barebox | BootKey | BootManager | BootX (Apple) | BootX (Linux) | Das U-Boot | GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | GNU GRUB | iBoot | LILO | loadlin | Limine | NTLDR | RedBoot | rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | rEFIt (not maintained) | SPFdisk | SYSLINUX | systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Windows Boot Manager | wolfBoot | XOSL | Name | Can boot | MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (FreeBSD) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) |
File-system support
Non-journaled
| Name | FAT | Minix | ext2 | HFS | AFFS | F2FS | YAFFS | FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ||||||||||||||
| Barebox | ||||||||||||||
| BootX (Apple) | ||||||||||||||
| BootX (Linux) | ||||||||||||||
| Das U-Boot | ||||||||||||||
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ||||||||||||||
| GNU GRUB 2 | ||||||||||||||
| GRUB Legacy | ||||||||||||||
| Grub2Win | ||||||||||||||
| GRUB4DOS | ||||||||||||||
| iBoot | ||||||||||||||
| LILO | ||||||||||||||
| Limine | ||||||||||||||
| loader (FreeBSD) | ||||||||||||||
| loadlin | ||||||||||||||
| NTLDR | ||||||||||||||
| RedBoot | ||||||||||||||
| rEFInd | group=nonjournaled | 1=https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd#Installing_the_rEFInd_Boot_Manager}} | ||||||||||||
| rEFIt | ||||||||||||||
| Syslinux | ||||||||||||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ||||||||||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | ||||||||||||||
| XOSL | ||||||||||||||
| yaboot |
Journaled
| Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | |||||||||||||||
| Barebox | |||||||||||||||
| BootManager | |||||||||||||||
| BootX (Apple) | |||||||||||||||
| BootX (Linux) | |||||||||||||||
| Das U-Boot | |||||||||||||||
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | |||||||||||||||
| GNU GRUB 2 | |||||||||||||||
| GRUB Legacy | |||||||||||||||
| Grub2Win | |||||||||||||||
| GRUB4DOS | |||||||||||||||
| iBoot | |||||||||||||||
| LILO | |||||||||||||||
| Limine | |||||||||||||||
| loader (FreeBSD) | |||||||||||||||
| loadlin | |||||||||||||||
| NTLDR | |||||||||||||||
| RedBoot | |||||||||||||||
| rEFInd | |||||||||||||||
| rEFIt | |||||||||||||||
| Syslinux | |||||||||||||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | |||||||||||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | |||||||||||||||
| XOSL | |||||||||||||||
| yaboot |
Copy-on-write
| Name | btrfs | APFS | ZFS | NILFS | ReFS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ||||||||
| Barebox | ||||||||
| BootManager | ||||||||
| BootX (Apple) | ||||||||
| BootX (Linux) | ||||||||
| Das U-Boot | ||||||||
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ||||||||
| GNU GRUB 2 | ||||||||
| GRUB Legacy | ||||||||
| Grub2Win | ||||||||
| GRUB4DOS | ||||||||
| iBoot | ||||||||
| LILO | ||||||||
| Limine | ||||||||
| loader (FreeBSD) | ||||||||
| loadlin | ||||||||
| NTLDR | ||||||||
| RedBoot | ||||||||
| rEFInd | ||||||||
| rEFIt | ||||||||
| Syslinux | ||||||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ||||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | title=Resilient File System (ReFS) overview | url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/refs/refs-overview | website=learn.microsoft.com | language=en-us}} | ||||
| XOSL | ||||||||
| yaboot |
Read-only
| Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ||||||
| Barebox | ||||||
| BootManager | ||||||
| BootX (Apple) | ||||||
| BootX (Linux) | ||||||
| Das U-Boot | ||||||
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ||||||
| GNU GRUB 2 | ||||||
| GRUB Legacy | ||||||
| Grub2Win | ||||||
| GRUB4DOS | ||||||
| iBoot | ||||||
| LILO | ||||||
| Limine | ||||||
| loader (FreeBSD) | ||||||
| loadlin | ||||||
| NTLDR | ||||||
| RedBoot | ||||||
| rEFInd | ||||||
| rEFIt | ||||||
| Syslinux | ||||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | ||||||
| XOSL | ||||||
| yaboot |
Other features
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others | GRUB Legacy | GRUB 2 | LILO | loader (FreeBSD) | kexec (Linux) | loadlin | SYSLINUX | Yaboot | RedBoot | Das U-Boot | Barebox | NTLDR | Windows Boot Manager | wolfBoot | FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Limine | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others | TFTP, HTTP | gzip, xz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | bzip2, gzip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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) | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V | Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image | The kexec system call can start another kernel, replacing the current running Linux, thus turning a Linux-based operating system into a fancy bootloader. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | gzip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, Multiboot, MBR image | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | default bootloader on Windows NT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | clone of NTLDR | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch{{cite news | last=Larabel | first=Michael | date=2024-08-03 | url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/Limine-8.0-Bootloader | title=Limine 8.0 Bootloader Released With LoongArch Support | access-date=2025-02-09}} | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage | TFTP | gzip |
Notes
References
- (2014-10-12). "stage2/dosstart.S".
- "Chain0 - OSx86".
- Rod Smith, "[http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/gummiboot.html 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]].
- Schürrmann, Tim. (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". [[Linux-Magazin]].
- Larabel, Michael. (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". [[Phoronix]].
- Schürrmann, Tim. (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". [[Linux-Magazin]].
- "Resilient File System (ReFS) overview".
- "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Supported kernels". Free Software Foundation, Inc..
- "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Device syntax". Free Software Foundation, Inc..
- "GNU GRUB Manual 2.02: Features".
- "An experiment to make a Multiboot-compliant kFreeBSD i386 image". Rivoreo.
- "Documentation for Kdump - The kexec-based Crash Dumping Solution".
- "Can SYSLINUX Handle Large Kernels?".
- "Mboot.c32 - Syslinux Wiki".
- "Comboot/chain.c32".
- Schürrmann, Tim. (2024-08-06). "Alternativer Bootloader Limine 8.0.1 unterstützt LoongArch64-Systeme". [[Linux-Magazin]].
- Holwerda, Thom. (2024-08-04). "Limine: a modern, advanced, portable, multiprotocol bootloader and boot manager". [[OSNews]].
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