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On Apple Mac computers using Intel x86-64 processor architecture, the EFI system partition is initially left blank and unused for booting into macOS. [13] [14]However, the EFI system partition is used as a staging area for firmware updates [15] and for the Microsoft Windows bootloader for Mac computers configured to boot into a Windows partition using Boot Camp.
For example, in the standard Linux directory layout (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard), boot files (such as the kernel, initrd, and boot loader GRUB) are mounted at /boot/. [1] Despite Microsoft's radically different definition (see below), System Information, a utility app included in Windows NT family of operating systems, refers to it as "boot ...
An alternate software system which usually resides in the computer's firmware, or a hardware-assisted debugger, is then executed with high privileges. It was first released with the Intel 386SL . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] While initially special SL versions were required for SMM, Intel incorporated SMM in its mainline 486 and Pentium processors in 1993.
In UEFI systems, the Linux kernel can be executed directly by UEFI firmware via the EFI boot stub, [8] but usually uses GRUB 2 or systemd-boot as a bootloader. [9] [10] If UEFI Secure Boot is supported, a "shim" or "Preloader" is often booted by the UEFI before the bootloader or EFI-stub-bearing kernel. [11]
In the context of GPT on a BIOS-based computer, a BIOS boot partition is similar in some respects to the EFI system partition, which is used by systems based on EFI. The EFI System partition holds a filesystem and files used by the UEFI, while the BIOS boot partition is used in BIOS-based systems and accessed without a filesystem by holding raw ...
coreboot, formerly known as LinuxBIOS, [5] is a software project aimed at replacing proprietary firmware (BIOS or UEFI) found in most computers with a lightweight firmware designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.
LILO (Linux Loader) is a bootloader for Linux and was the default boot loader for most Linux distributions [when? Unlike loadlin , it allowed booting Linux without having DOS on the computer. [ 3 ] As of 2009, most distributions have switched to GRUB as the default boot loader. [ 4 ]
Non-Macintosh systems, notably Windows and Linux, may not be typically booted in EFI mode and thus USB booting may be limited to supported hardware and software combinations that can easily be booted via EFI. [8] However, programs like Mac Linux USB Loader can alleviate the difficulties of the task of booting a Linux-live USB on a Mac.