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convict
n00b
Joined: 15 Nov 2009
Posts: 16
Location: Melbourne, Teh Aussies
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 Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:36 am Post subject: Purpose of /boot & when do I get to use it? |
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Alright, I figured it's related to the bootup process... but what exactly is it for & what files are usually stored in there?
And the next thing... I started the Gentoo installation as per the instructions in the handbook, but I think I have done something wrong. I made it up to the configuring bootloader part without having had anything to do with /boot except for creating and formatting the partition... I just though it's weird that I hadn't actually put anything in /boot and I was supposed to get the bootloader working already. Is there indeed something I'm doing wrong? |
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dylix
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Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 261
Location: Atlanta
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:35 am Post subject: Re: Purpose of /boot & when do I get to use it? |
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| convict wrote: | Alright, I figured it's related to the bootup process... but what exactly is it for & what files are usually stored in there?
And the next thing... I started the Gentoo installation as per the instructions in the handbook, but I think I have done something wrong. I made it up to the configuring bootloader part without having had anything to do with /boot except for creating and formatting the partition... I just though it's weird that I hadn't actually put anything in /boot and I was supposed to get the bootloader working already. Is there indeed something I'm doing wrong? |
apparently the reasoning is that if something happens to your / you'll still be able to boot since /boot is not generally mounted when using the os (as per the handbook fstab setup)..
when u are in grub and run setup (hd0) or what have you, then it will copy nessecary to mbr & /boot.. ofcourse dont forget to copy your kernel over there too 
will that explanation work? its sorta late, so thats all i got
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convict
n00b
Joined: 15 Nov 2009
Posts: 16
Location: Melbourne, Teh Aussies
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| So, /boot houses the boot loader and all related files as well as the kernel image... correct? |
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dmpogo
Advocate
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 3266
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| convict wrote: | | So, /boot houses the boot loader and all related files as well as the kernel image... correct? |
correct |
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cach0rr0
Bodhisattva
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Posts: 4123
Location: Houston, Republic of Texas
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:50 am Post subject: |
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| convict wrote: | | So, /boot houses the boot loader and all related files as well as the kernel image... correct? |
correct, though in the handbook it does tell you to copy your bzImage over to /boot if you configure the kernel by hand (and it might mention this if using genkernel as well - dunno, havent touched genkernel in years)
So if you don't have the kernel image over there, as you would have well guessed this is a problem.
Boot in this case is really grub's own little sandbox to play, where it can keep its configuration files, stage files, the kernel image, etc.
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Veldrin
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 1945
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:50 am Post subject: |
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And if you are using a raid0 setup - at least in the past - grub could only boot a kernel from a plain partition or a raid1 partition.
And if you intend to use some kind of encrypted root, you might want to have access to a kernel, which can decrypt you boot (if there is not /boot partition, your have an egg-hen problem...)
just my .02$
V. |
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richard.scott
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Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 1497
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:38 am Post subject: |
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if it helps, I have this in /boot
| Code: | # find /boot
/boot
/boot/grub
/boot/grub/boot
/boot/grub/boot/grub
/boot/grub/boot/grub/device.map
/boot/grub/menu.lst
/boot/grub/default
/boot/grub/pxegrub
/boot/grub/device.map
/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/grub.conf
/boot/grub/stage2_eltorito
/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
/boot/grub/ufs2_stage1_5
/boot/grub/stage2.netboot
/boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5
/boot/grub/jfs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/xfs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/minix_stage1_5
/boot/grub/fat_stage1_5
/boot/grub/vstafs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/nbgrub
/boot/grub/stage1
/boot/grub/stage2.old
/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/ffs_stage1_5
/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/memtest86plus
/boot/memtest86plus/memtest.bin
/boot/boot
/boot/System.map-genkernel-x86-2.6.28-hardened-r9
/boot/.keep
/boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.28-hardened-r9
/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.28-hardened-r9 |
Rich |
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gringo
Advocate
Joined: 27 Apr 2003
Posts: 3793
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | So, /boot houses the boot loader and all related files as well as the kernel image... correct? |
the bootloader is stored in the mbr of your drive, in /boot you´ll find kernel images, configuration files and other random stuff to get the loader working.
/boot isn´t really necessary in a default setup except for a few cases like the ones Veldrin mentioned.
cheers
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NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54209
Location: 56N 3W
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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convict,
All the above explainations are correct as far as they go. If you want the full history lesson, it runs to about 12 pages and is written up in the Large Disk HOWTO, which you will find on tldp.org.
In brief, a /boot partition is required in an area of the drive that the BIOS can read as the BIOS is used to load the files needed for booting.
Its only an issue on machines that are fitted with hard drives bigger then the BIOS can read.
A /boot partition is a good idea if you want to boot several distros but its not required.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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mikegpitt
Advocate
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 3224
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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| gringo wrote: |
the bootloader is stored in the mbr of your drive |
For grub, the stage1 bootloader is stored in the MBR, which gets the boot process kicked off, but the stage2 and remainder support files are all in /boot.
(Note that I'm talking about grub's stages -- not Gentoo's) |
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richard.scott
Veteran
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 1497
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
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| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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also, in the old days a systems bios couldn't read a boot partition if it exceeded the first few cylinders on the disk.
having a small /boot partition gets round this limitation.
However, I don't believe this is much of an issue today, but its still handy for booting from raid1 or having an LVM root slice etc.
Rich. |
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Installing Gentoo
