OSv boot methods overview

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WALDEMAR KOZACZUK edited this page Nov 26, 2019 · 2 revisions

In the early days, OSv could only boot in real-mode (16-bit) by loading the compressed kernel, decompressing it and then switching to protected mode (32-bit) and finally to long mode (64-bit). For details about MBR boot please read this Wiki.

Fairly recently OSv has been enhanced to boot in many other ways:

64-bit direct Linux kernel boot (aka vmlinux) - intended to boot OSv on firecracker where loader.elf emulates 64-bit Linux kernel ELF
64-bit PVH/HVM Linux kernel boot - intended to boot OSv on QEMU microvm machine where loader.elf
vmlinuz boot - intended to boot OSv on hyperkit