Linux Booting

• The booting procedure.

• Logging in to the machine.
• Control flow in the machine.
 Linux Booting
• The booting procedure.
• Logging in to the machine.
• Control flow in the machine.
 The booting procedure.
• Every computer has sequence of
instructions that are executed when
computer is powered up.
– determined by the hardware designers
• Every OS has a sequence of instructions
that it executes prior to normal operation.
 The booting procedure.
• i386 machines incorporate the Basic
Input/Output System (BIOS)
– stored at a prespecified location in system ROM.
– when computer started, begins executing BIOS code
– BIOS code executes the Power-On Self Test (POST)
– POST performs various diagnostic tests to check
memory and devices for their presence and correct
operation.
– when POST is completed, machine ready to load and
start OS.
 The booting procedure.
• The boot sector.
– OS loaded from the system’s boot disk.
– i386 treats A: as default disk if it contains a diskette.
– Otherwise depends on how you’ve set the BIOS.
 The booting procedure.
• The boot disk
– must contain a boot record at the disk’s first logical sector.
– The boot record fits onto a single 512-byte disk sector (called the boot
sector):

0x000 0x002 <a jump instr to 0x0XX>

0x003 …. Disk parameters (used by BIOS) program
0x0XX 0x1fd Bootstrap program
0x1fe 0x1ff 0xaa55 (the magic number for BIOS)
 The booting procedure.
• After POST BIOS copies the boot record from disk
into memory
• Bios then reads boot record parameters:
– Boot record contains parameters that describe disk’s
physical layout
– Parameters are stored in well-know locations in boot
record
– Parameters include number of tracks and number of
sectors per track.
 The booting procedure.
• After parameters read BIOS branches to the first
location in program
– then immediately branches to location 0x0XX
– the value XX for Linux is 3e
– the value XX for MS-DOS is 1e
• The small program at address 0x0XX loads a more
sophisticated loader from other sectors on the disk
• The sophisticated loader loads the OS
 The booting procedure.
• Disk partitioning
– can have up to 4 primary partitions on one physical
disk
• each primary disk can have logical sub-partitions
– each partition treated like a physical disk below the
abstract machine that accesses the physical disk (eg,
BIOS in MS-DOS)
– if partition is bootable then its logical sector
number 0 will be a boot sector.
 The booting procedure.
• Disk partitioning
– when hardware is powered up goes to head 0, track 0,
sector 1 and begins executing code.
– an unpartitioned disk has a jump instruction at head 0,
track 0, sector 1 which jumps to location 0x0XX and
starts the execution of the boot program
– in a partitioned disk, physical head 0, track 0, sector 1
(first logical disk sector) describes how hard disk is
partitioned into logical disks.
 The booting procedure.
– A partitioned disk has a 446-byte bootstrap program
starting at first byte in the sector.
– next is a 65-byte partition table for the disk
– Table contains the 4 partition entries, each of which
describes the portion of the physical disk that is used
for its partition (starting sector of the partition, ending
sector, number of sectors, etc.)
– last 2 bytes of partition sector contain a magic number,
0xaa55 to identify the partition sector.
 Partitioned Disk
head 0 track 0 sector 1

446-byte bootstrap program

4 partition entries, each

describes the portion of
65-byte partition table the physical disk
used for its partition
2 bytes: magic number, 0xaa55 for MS-DOS
 The booting procedure.
• Partitioning with different OS’s
– i386 can be booted with Linux from boot
floppy.
– contains a Linux boot program.
– Can have different OS in different partitions
– Windows handles by designating one partition
as an active partition. System always boots
from this partition.
 The booting procedure.
• Partitioning with different OS’s
– can have a special program, Linux Loader
(LILO) in system boot record.
– program allows user to choose at boot time
which partition is to be the active partition.
– LILO is loaded in the boot record so that BIOS
runs it after the POST.
 Starting the Kernel
• machine is powered up
– hardware fetch-decode-execute cycle begins.
– called the “hardware process”
– this is not a Linux process; Linux has not yet started.
• POST is completed
• boot record read
• loader places OS into primary memory
• the booting procedure begins to run kernel code to
initialize the computer’s hardware.
 Starting the Kernel
• Computer then starts kernel by setting supervisor
mode and branching to main entry point in kernel.
• main entry point is not a C program.
• kernel initializes
– trap table
– interrupt handler
– scheduler
– clock
– modules
– etc.
 Starting the Kernel
• near end of kernel initialization start process manager
– now ready for normal process abstraction
– PM starts the initial process
– initial process is first entry in kernel’s process descriptor table
– referred to as process 0, task[0], or INIT_TASK
– initial process then creates first useful Linux process to run:
the init program
– after init runs it executes an idle loop
– only other duties of init is to use idle CPU time….runs when
no other process wants CPU.
 Starting the Kernel
• init process initializes system
– starts daemons
– starts file manager
– creates system console
– runs other init programs from /etc, /bin and/or
/sbin, and runs /etc/rc
 Logging in to the machine
• during initialization kernel creates one process on each
communication port that can be used to support user
logins
– uses the getty program
• getty
– waits for a user to begin using the port
– then runs login program
– login expects user id on first line, passwd on next
– login verifies user by looking in /etc/passwd file
 Logging in to the machine
• getty
– /etc/passwd file. Each entry separated by colon
jbarr:eNcrYpt123:3348:35:John Barr:/home/barr:/bin/bash
– jbarr account name
– eNcrYpt123 encrypted password
– 3348 and 35 user ID and group ID
– John Barr real name
– /home/barr user’s home directory
– /bin/bash path to shell command preferred by user
 Logging in to the machine
• getty
– once login verifies it changes current directory to user’s
home directory
– and executes the specified shell program
– now user interacts directly with login process via shell.
– user who logs in is using a process that was created when
the machine was started
– starting shell is complicated; data and stack segments
created etc.
– data includes user’s environmental variables (eg, PATH)
– when user logs off, return from shell call to the login process
 Logging in to the machine
26
Serial Port A login
1
Serial Port B login
getty

Serial Port C login

5 4 3

Serial Port Z login

/etc/passwd
/bin/bash
 Control Flow
hardware process starts

Idle Proc kernel ISRs Proc i Proc j

program

hardware
process

context
switch