Limine (bootloader)

Last updated
Limine
Developers Mintsuki and contributors
Stable release
10.4.0 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 30 November 2025
Repository codeberg.org/Limine/Limine
Written in C, assembly languages
Platform ARM, RISC-V, loongArch, x86 [2] [3]
Type Bootloader
License BSD-2-Clause
Website limine-bootloader.org

Limine is a portable boot loader and the reference implementation for the Limine boot protocol. [4] [5] Multiboot2, chainloading, and the Linux boot protocols are also supported. Limine supports the ISO-9660 and FAT filesystems. [6] [7]

Contents

Limine aims to provide a more robust alternative to bootloaders like GNU GRUB, [8] as well as its own boot protocol as an alternative to the Multiboot specification, with the goal of reducing the amount of work needed for a kernel developer to get a workable 64-bit environment once booted. [4]

Limine is packaged by several Linux distributions, being offered by Arch Linux, where it is an option in archinstall, [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] as well as included in EasyOS [15] (a derivative of Puppy Linux [16] ), CachyOS, [17] [18] , Chimera Linux, [19] and KaOS. [20] [21] [22] Limine is also used by Cosmos [23] and supported by SerenityOS. [24]

See also

References

  1. "Release 10.4.0". 30 November 2025. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  2. Larabel, Michael (2024-08-03). "Limine 8.0 Bootloader Released With LoongArch Support". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  3. Schürrmann, Tim (2024-08-06). "Alternativer Bootloader Limine 8.0.1 unterstützt LoongArch64-Systeme" (in German). Linux-Magazin . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  4. 1 2 "Limine". limine-bootloader.org. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  5. Holwerda, Thom (2024-08-04). "Limine: a modern, advanced, portable, multiprotocol bootloader and boot manager". OSNews . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  6. Larabel, Michael (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  7. Schürrmann, Tim (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme" (in German). Linux-Magazin . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  8. Larabel, Michael (2024-01-14). "Limine 7.0 Bootloader Released". Phoronix . Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  9. Larabel, Michael (2023-07-31). "Archinstall 2.6 Released For Latest Easy-To-Use Arch Linux Installer". Phoronix . Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  10. Nestor, Marius (2023-07-30). "Arch Linux Installer Now Supports Hyperland WM, Limine Bootloader". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  11. Nestor, Marius (2025-03-30). "Arch Linux Installer Archinstall 3.0.3 Improves Limine Bootloader Support". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  12. Borisov, Bobby (2025-03-30). "Archinstall 3.0.3 Rolls Out with Partitioning and Bootloader Improvements". Linuxiac. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  13. Nestor, Marius (2025-11-29). "Archinstall 3.0.14 Allows UEFI Bootloader Installation to Removable Locations". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  14. Batt, Simon (2025-12-01). "Installing Arch Linux just got a whole lot less intimidating". XDA. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  15. darkcrizt (2022-11-15). "EasyOS 4.5 "Dunfell" arrives with a large number of fixes and new sfs". Ubunlog. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  16. Rudra, Sourav (2023-08-02). "EasyOS: An Experimental Distro With Unique Qualities". It's FOSS News. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  17. Larabel, Michael (2025-03-30). "CachyOS Adds Limine Bootloader, Easier Samba Integration & NTSYNC Wine". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-04-25.
  18. Borisov, Bobby (2025-03-30). "CachyOS March 2025 Release Brings Limine Bootloader". Linuxiac. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  19. Borisov, Bobby (2025-04-21). "Chimera Linux Introduces Key Bootloader Changes". Linuxiac. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
  20. Nestor, Marius (2025-11-30). "KaOS Linux 2025.11 Adds Support for the Limine Bootloader, KDE Plasma 6.5". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  21. Borisov, Bobby (2025-11-30). "KaOS 2025.11 Ships Plasma 6.5.3, Linux Kernel 6.17". Linuxiac. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  22. Bauduin, Sven (2025-12-01). "KaOS 2025.11: Die pure Essenz von KDE Plasma 6.5 und Qt 6" (in German). PCGH. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  23. "IL2CPU". cosmos.github.io. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  24. "SerenityOS Changelog for Monday, February 14, 2022". changelog.serenityos.org. Retrieved 2023-08-29.

Further reading