The Kernel - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4.5.0 Reference Manual

Note
If Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) kernel support is installed, more than one
option is presented the first time the system is booted. In this situation GRUB
displays
SMP kernel, and
for single processors.
If any problems occur using the SMP kernel, try selecting the a non-SMP kernel
upon rebooting.
Once the second stage boot loader has determined which kernel to boot, it locates the
corresponding kernel binary in the
following format —
/boot/vmlinuz-<kernel-version>
corresponds to the kernel version specified in the boot loader's settings).
For instructions on using the boot loader to supply command line arguments to the kernel, refer
to Chapter 2, The GRUB Boot
loader prompt, refer Section 8, "Changing Runlevels at Boot
The boot loader then places one or more appropriate initramfs images into memory. Next, the
kernel decompresses these images from memory to
via . The
cpio initramfs
the system. This is particularly important if SCSI hard drives are present or if the systems use
the ext3 file system.
Once the kernel and the
control of the boot process to the kernel.
For a more detailed overview of the GRUB boot loader, refer to
Loader.
2.2.1. Boot Loaders for Other Architectures
Once the kernel loads and hands off the boot process to the
sequence of events occurs on every architecture. So the main difference between each
architecture's boot process is in the application used to find and load the kernel.
For example, the Itanium architecture uses the ELILO boot loader, the IBM eServer pSeries
architecture uses YABOOT, and the IBM eServer zSeries and IBM S/390 systems use the z/IPL
boot loader.
Consult the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide specific to these platforms for
information on configuring their boot loaders.

2.3. The Kernel

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (<kernel-version>-smp)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (<kernel-version>)
directory. The kernel binary is named using the
/boot/
Loader. For information on changing the runlevel at the boot
is used by the kernel to load drivers and modules necessary to boot
image(s) are loaded into memory, the boot loader hands
initramfs
file (where
<kernel-version>
Time".
, a RAM-based virtual file system,
/boot/
Chapter 2, The GRUB Boot
command, the same
init
The Kernel
, which is the
, which is
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