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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the first sector of a mass storage device. The column VBR (Volume Boot Record) refers to the ability of the boot loader to be stored in the first sector of any partition on a mass storage device.
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| BootKey | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| BootManager | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
| BootX (Apple) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Limine | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| loadlin | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| SPFdisk | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| wolfBoot | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
| Acronis OS Selector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Calls bootloader for some kernels | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| LILO | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
| loadlin | with MEMDISK | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Limine | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Yes | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader |
| NTLDR | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Calls GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | ? | Calls Darwin bootloader [4] |
| RedBoot | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| SPFdisk | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager [5] | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes [5] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| wolfBoot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| XOSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
| Name | FAT | Minix | ext2 | HFS | AFFS | F2FS | YAFFS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 | ||||||
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine [6] [7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | Yes [a] | ? | ? | Yes [b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | patch [a] | Yes [b] | No | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [b] | No | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes [c] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| rEFInd | Partial [d] | Yes [d] | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Partial [e] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | btrfs | APFS | ZFS | NILFS | ReFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Barebox | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No [8] |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No [8] |
| GRUB Legacy | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| GRUB4DOS | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Limine [9] [10] | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No [8] |
| loadlin | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| NTLDR | No | No | No | No | No [8] |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| rEFInd | Yes [a] | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Syslinux | Yes | No | No | No | No [8] |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | No | ? | ? | No [8] |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No [8] |
| Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [a] | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [b] | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | ? | ? | Yes [c] | ? | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | Yes [c] | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | No | No | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | ? | ? | Yes [e] | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |
| GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others [11] | TFTP, HTTP [12] | gzip, xz [13] | |
| LILO | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), MIPS, PowerPC (OpenFirmware), SPARC v9 (OpenFirmware) | FreeBSD ELF kernel image, Multiboot (incomplete, for Xen image only) [14] | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |
| kexec (Linux) | Depending on user space | Depending on user space | x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V [15] | Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image | Depending on configuration and user space | — | The kexec system call can start another kernel, replacing the current running Linux, thus turning a Linux-based operating system into a fancy bootloader. |
| loadlin | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | gzip | |
| SYSLINUX | via cmd.c32 module | via lua.c32 module | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, [16] Multiboot, [17] MBR image [18] | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |
| Yaboot | No | No | PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | No | |
| RedBoot | Yes | yes (boot only) | ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | PowerPC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, ColdFire, IXP, Leon2, m68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, NIOS, NIOS2, PXA, x86, RISC-V, StrongARM, SH2, SH3, SH4, ... | EFI, ELF, U-Boot image format, Linux zImage, raw | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lzma | |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | ARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPC | ELF, U-Boot image format | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo | |
| NTLDR | No | No | x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
| wolfBoot | ? | ? | ARM Cortex-M, ARM Cortex-R, ARM Cortex-A, Intel x86, RISC-V RV32, PowerPC, Renesas RH, TriCore | Raw binary, ELF, UEFI | TPM 2.0, PKCS#11. SPI, I²C, UART | Custom delta-update based on Bentley-Mcilroy compression algorithm | |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
| Limine | Yes | No | x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch [19] [20] | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage [21] | TFTP | gzip |
Since we have copied the Linux kernel code and the Linux kernel follows GPL2, so only GPL2 is adoptable and it rules here.
If you enabled the network support, the special drives (protocol[,server]) are also available. Supported protocols are 'http' and 'tftp'.
Since 10.3-RELEASE, the BTX loader included in distribution supports Multiboot, but only for Xen (the Xen image is a Multiboot-compliant kernel). ... Because this multiboot support in BTX loader is designed for Xen only, it requires the first Multiboot module be original kFreeBSD image. Trying to load a Multiboot kernel without loading any Multiboot modules would resulted in BTX loader complaining 'No FreeBSD kernel provided, aborting'.