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.github | ||
common | ||
decompressor | ||
limine-install | ||
stage1 | ||
test | ||
tinf | ||
.gitignore | ||
CONFIG.md | ||
GNUmakefile.in | ||
LICENSE.md | ||
README.md | ||
autogen.sh | ||
bochsrc | ||
config.h.in | ||
configure.ac | ||
make_toolchain.sh | ||
screenshot.png | ||
version.sh |
README.md
Limine
What is Limine?
Limine is a modern, advanced x86/x86_64 BIOS/UEFI multiprotocol bootloader used as the reference implementation for the stivale protocols.
Support Limine
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:)
Limine's boot menu
Photo by Chris Kane from Pexels
Supported boot protocols
- stivale and stivale2 (Limine's native boot protocols, see their specifications for details)
- Linux
- Multiboot 1
- Multiboot 2
- Chainloading
Supported filesystems
- ext2/3/4
- echfs
- FAT12/16/32
- NTFS
- 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 v2.78.2)
git clone https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine.git --branch=v2.78.2-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 run make
in the binary
release directory.
Building the bootloader
The following steps are not necessary if cloning a binary release. If so, skip to "Installing Limine binaries".
Building the toolchain
This step can take a long time, but it will ensure that the toolchain will work
with Limine. If on an x86_64 host, with GCC or Clang installed, it is possible
that the host toolchain will suffice. You can skip to the next paragraph in order
to use the system's toolchain instead. If that fails, you can still come back here
later (remember to make clean
and re-run ./configure
after building the toolchain).
The toolchain's build process depends on the following packages: GNU make
, GNU tar
,
curl
, gzip
, bzip2
, gcc/clang
, g++/clang++
.
Building the toolchain can be accomplished by running:
./make_toolchain.sh
Prerequisites
In order to build Limine, the following packages have to be installed:
GNU make
, gzip
, 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, alongside
GNU binutils
.
Configure
If using a release tarball (recommended, see https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine/releases),
run ./configure
directly.
If checking out from the repository, run ./autogen.sh
first (GNU autoconf and GNU automake required).
Both ./autogen.sh
and ./configure
take arguments and environment variables;
for more information on these, run ./configure --help
.
Limine supports both in-tree and out-of-tree builds. Simply run the configure
script from the directory you wish to execute the build in. The following make
commands are supposed to be ran inside the build directory.
Building Limine
To build Limine, run:
make # (or gmake where applicable)
The generated bootloader files are going to be in $BUILDDIR/bin
.
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 to a share
and
bin
directories in the specified prefix (default is /usr/local
, see
./configure --help
, or the PREFIX
variable if installing a binary release).
To install Limine, run:
make install # (or gmake where applicable)
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 on both BIOS and UEFI systems.
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-install
attempt 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.