[HN Gopher] Minimal Linux Bootloader (2018)
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       Minimal Linux Bootloader (2018)
        
       Author : 1vuio0pswjnm7
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2025-05-04 16:36 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (raw.githubusercontent.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (raw.githubusercontent.com)
        
       | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
       | This is Bootloader ID #11 with comments
       | 
       | See:
       | 
       | http://sebastian-plotz.blogspot.de
       | 
       | https://docs.kernel.org/arch/x86/boot.html
        
         | not_your_vase wrote:
         | > Blog nicht gefunden.
         | 
         | Ahhh, after looking harder, I see the typo
         | 
         | https://sebastian-plotz.blogspot.com/
        
         | secure wrote:
         | I use this bootloader in gokrazy and blogged about debugging a
         | limitation in it a while ago:
         | https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2024-02-11-minimal-linux...
        
       | D4ckard wrote:
       | I love MBR hacking, it's so fun to see. Cf. sector lisp [1] and
       | OSle [2].
       | 
       | [1]: https://github.com/jart/sectorlisp
       | 
       | [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43866585
        
       | micw wrote:
       | Do I see it right that I need to recompile and reinstall it on
       | each new kernel?
        
       | M95D wrote:
       | I don't see how this is better than lilo.
        
         | WalterGR wrote:
         | It's not meant to be full-featured. It shows how to write a
         | bootloader that's smaller than 512 bytes.
        
         | 6SixTy wrote:
         | It's not supposed to be better than lilo, just code golf.
         | Limine is pretty much the only serious bootloader gunning for
         | the spot lilo/elilo was going for.
        
       | 6SixTy wrote:
       | Kind of cool, but being exclusively for BIOS/MBR kind of kills my
       | excitement.
        
         | seba_dos1 wrote:
         | With EFI, you can just boot straight into Linux without any
         | bootloader.
        
           | NewJazz wrote:
           | Technically there's a pe shim, no?
        
             | cyberax wrote:
             | You can just package Linux as a PE executable.
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | Yes. BIOS. Real mode. Not that I've been missing them these 30
         | years, and they are still in place. It gives a weird feeling.
         | 
         | I mean, if you target ancient baroque hardware like e.g. ZX
         | Spectrum, you specifically target an ancient machine. But this
         | is expected to work on any modern x86 hardware, while it feels
         | like code for a 80286, and likely would run there. And this
         | ancient stuff is still supported and actively used.
        
           | musicale wrote:
           | > this ancient stuff is still supported and actively used.
           | 
           | It sort of warms my heart that code for the IBM 360 (now IBM
           | Z) and the IBM PC (now x86 PC) can still run on modern
           | hardware decades later.
           | 
           | On one hand, we're stuck with the legacy of the past. But on
           | the other hand, we can build on things and don't need to
           | reinvent them unnecessarily.
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-04 23:00 UTC)