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The following names have been used to describe boot sectors or parts of
operating systems:
- ``DOS-MBR''
- is the original MS-DOS MBR. It scans the partition
table for a partition that is marked ``active'' and loads the boot
sector of that partition. Programs like MS-DOS' FDISK, Linux
fdisk or activate (accompanies LILO )
can change the active marker in the partition table.
- ``MS-DOS''
- denotes the MS-DOS boot sector that loads the other parts
of the system ( IO.SYS, etc.).
- ``COMMAND.COM''
- is the standard command interpreter of MS-DOS.
- ``BOOTLIN'' and ``LOADLIN''
- are programs that load a Linux
kernel image from an
MS-DOS partition into memory and execute it. They are usually invoked
from CONFIG.SYS and used in combination with a CONFIG.SYS
configuration switcher, like BOOT.SYS.
- ``LILO''
- can either load a Linux kernel or the boot sector of any
other operating system. It has a first stage boot sector that
loads the remaining parts of LILO from various locations.
- ``BOOTACTV''
- permits interactive selection of the partition from
which the boot sector should be read. If no key is pressed within a
given interval, the partition marked active is booted. BOOTACTV is
included in the pfdisk package. There are also several similar
programs, like PBOOT and OS-BS.
Ross Biro
Sat May 20 13:51:22 PDT 1995