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README.md
Limine
What is Limine?
Limine is an advanced x86/x86_64 BIOS/UEFI Bootloader which supports modern PC features such as Long Mode, 5-level paging, and SMP (multicore), to name a few.
Support Limine
Like Limine and want to support it? Donate Bitcoin to bc1q00d59y75crpapw7qp8sea5j5sx6l4k2ssjylf9 :)
Limine's boot menu
Photo by Nishant Aneja from Pexels
Supported boot protocols
- Linux
- stivale and stivale2 (Limine's native boot protocols, see their specifications for details)
- Chainloading
- Multiboot 1
Supported filesystems
- ext2/3/4
- echfs
- FAT12/16/32
- ISO9660 (CDs/DVDs)
Supported partitioning schemes
- MBR
- GPT
- Unpartitioned media
Binary releases
For convenience, for point releases, binaries are distributed. These binaries are
shipped in the -binary branches and tags of this repository (see branches and tags).
For example, to clone the latest binary release of the v2.x branch one can do
git clone https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine.git --branch=v2.0-branch-binary --depth=1
or, to clone a specific binary point release (for example v2.4)
git clone https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine.git --branch=v2.4-binary --depth=1
Additionally, the absolute latest Limine binary release can be obtained by fetching
the latest-binary branch:
git clone https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine.git --branch=latest-binary --depth=1
limine-install binaries are provided for Linux and Windows. In case one wants to
rebuild limine-install, simply use make in the binary release.
Building the bootloader
These steps are not necessary if cloning a binary release. If so, skip to "Installing Limine binaries".
Note that the build system does not support building from a directory whose full path contains spaces.
Building the toolchain
This step can take a long time, but it will ensure that the compiler will work with Limine. If on an x86_64 host, with GCC or Clang installed, you can also skip to the next paragraph.
The toolchain building process depends on the following packages: bash, make,
wget, gcc, g++, GNU binutils.
Building the toolchain can be accomplished by running:
make toolchain
The above step may take a while
Building Limine
In order to build Limine, the following packages have to be installed: bash, make,
git, nasm, mtools (optional, necessary to build limine-eltorito-efi.bin).
Furthermore, either the toolchain must have been built in the previous paragraph,
or gcc or llvm/clang must also be installed.
GNU binutils is necessary in order to build the UEFI port of Limine. A full
LLVM toolchain without GNU binutils can be used to build the BIOS port instead.
Both the UEFI and BIOS ports of the bootloader can be built, using GCC/GNU binutils, with:
make
It is possible to pass make additional flags, most relevantly, TOOLCHAIN= which
allows one to specify an alternative toolchain for the build system to use
(the default is x86_64-elf, falling back to no-triple, or host, toolchain).
The generated bootloader files are going to be in bin.
Using clang/LLVM
In order to build the BIOS port fully using clang/LLVM, run make as such:
make limine-bios bin/limine-install CC="clang" TOOLCHAIN="llvm" TOOLCHAIN_CC="clang" TOOLCHAIN_LD="ld.lld"
And in order to build the UEFI port using clang/LLVM + GNU binutils, run make as such:
make limine-uefi TOOLCHAIN="llvm" TOOLCHAIN_CC="clang" TOOLCHAIN_LD="ld" TOOLCHAIN_OBJCOPY="objcopy"
Installing Limine binaries
This step is optional as the bootloader binaries can be used from the bin or
release directory just fine. This step will only install them in a share and bin
directories in the specified PREFIX (default is /usr/local).
Use make install to install Limine binaries, optionally specifying a prefix with a
PREFIX=... option.
How to use
UEFI
The BOOTX64.EFI file is a vaild EFI application that can be simply copied to the
/EFI/BOOT directory of a FAT formatted EFI system partition. This file can be
installed there and coexist with a BIOS installation of Limine (see below) so that
the disk will be bootable by both BIOS and UEFI.
The boot device must to contain the limine.cfg file in
either the root or the boot directory of one of the partitions, formatted
with a supported file system (the ESP partition is recommended).
BIOS/MBR
In order to install Limine on a MBR device (which can just be a raw image file),
run limine-install as such:
limine-install <path to device/image>
The boot device must to contain the limine.sys and limine.cfg files in
either the root or the boot directory of one of the partitions, formatted
with a supported file system.
BIOS/GPT
If using a GPT formatted device, there are 2 options one can follow for installation:
- Specifying a dedicated stage 2 partition.
- Letting
limine-installattempt to embed stage 2 within GPT structures.
In case one wants to specify a stage 2 partition, create a partition on the GPT
device of at least 32KiB in size, and pass the 1-based number of the partition
to limine-install as a second argument; such as:
limine-install <path to device/image> <1-based stage 2 partition number>
In case one wants to let limine-install embed stage 2 within GPT's structures,
simply omit the partition number, and invoke limine-install the same as one would
do for an MBR partitioned device.
The boot device must to contain the limine.sys and limine.cfg files in
either the root or the boot directory of one of the partitions, formatted
with a supported file system.
BIOS/UEFI hybrid ISO creation
In order to create a hybrid ISO with Limine, place the limine-eltorito-efi.bin,
limine-cd.bin, limine.sys, and limine.cfg files into a directory which will
serve as the root of the created ISO.
(limine.sys and limine.cfg must either be in the root or inside a boot
subdirectory; limine-eltorito-efi.bin and limine-cd.bin can reside anywhere).
Place any other file you want to be on the final ISO in said directory, then run:
xorriso -as mkisofs -b <relative path of limine-cd.bin> \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
--efi-boot <relative path of limine-eltorito-efi.bin> \
-efi-boot-part --efi-boot-image --protective-msdos-label \
<root directory> -o image.iso
Note: xorriso is required.
And do not forget to also run limine-install on the generated image:
limine-install image.iso
<relative path of limine-cd.bin> is the relative path of
limine-cd.bin inside the root directory.
For example, if it was copied in <root directory>/boot/limine-cd.bin,
it would be boot/limine-cd.bin.
<relative path of limine-eltorito-efi.bin> is the relative path of
limine-eltorito-efi.bin inside the root directory.
For example, if it was copied in <root directory>/boot/limine-eltorito-efi.bin,
it would be boot/limine-eltorito-efi.bin.
BIOS/PXE boot
The limine-pxe.bin binary is a valid PXE boot image.
In order to boot Limine from PXE it is necessary to setup a DHCP server with
support for PXE booting. This can either be accomplished using a single DHCP server
or your existing DHCP server and a proxy DHCP server such as dnsmasq.
limine.cfg and limine.sys are expected to be on the server used for boot.
Configuration
The limine.cfg file contains Limine's configuration.
An example limine.cfg file can be found in test/limine.cfg.
More info on the format of limine.cfg can be found in CONFIG.md.
Acknowledgments
Limine uses a stripped-down version of tinf.
Discord server
We have a Discord server if you need support, info, or you just want to hang out with us.