How GRUB Based Booting Works
After an x86 based system is powered on, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) initializes the CPU, the memory, and the platform hardware. When the initialization phase has completed, the BIOS loads the boot loader from the configured boot device and then transfers control of the system to the boot loader. The boot loader is the first software program that runs after you turn on a system. This program starts the boot process.
GRUB implements a menu interface that includes boot options that are predefined in a configuration file called the menu.lst file. GRUB also has a command-line interface that is accessible from the GUI menu interface that can be used to perform various boot functions, including modifying default boot behavior. In the Solaris OS, the GRUB implementation is compliant with the Multiboot Specification, which is described in detail at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html.
Because the Solaris kernel is fully compliant with the Multiboot Specification, you can boot x86 based systems by using GRUB. With GRUB, you can boot various operating systems that are installed on a single x86 based system. For example, you can individually boot the Solaris OS, Linux, or Windows by selecting the boot entry in the GRUB menu at boot time or by configuring the menu.lst file to boot a specific OS by default.
Because GRUB is intuitive about file systems and kernel executable formats, you can load an operating system without recording the physical position of the kernel on the disk. With GRUB-based booting, the kernel is loaded by specifying its file name, and the drive and the partition where the kernel resides. For more information see Naming Conventions That Are Used for Configuring GRUB.
For step-by-step instructions on booting a system with GRUB, see Booting an x86 Based System by Using GRUB (Task Map).
See also the following man pages:
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