Score:1

How can linux system boot/reboot without bootloader installed?

cn flag

Today I saw that grub is missing on my system (how that happened is another question). Checked with apt/dpkg: no grub* package installed, also no lilo or systemd-boot package installed.
Also was looking for grub or the like in bootsector: dd if=/dev/xvda1 bs=512 count=1 | strings, no result...
I have snapshot that I can return to in case of system failure, so I did sudo shutdown -r now, and the system rebooted fine!!!

My question is: How is this possible???
To my limited IT knowledge you MUST have a bootloader in order to boot a system, I am confused!

(My machine: vServer running under Xen; Debian 11 x64 installed; single boot, no other OS on disk)

Nikita Kipriyanov avatar
za flag
There is no bootloader needed for Xen paravirtual domU, neither it needs its kernel image to exist inside the domU as a file. In that case hypervisor itself loads the domU kernel from its own store and gives it a kick.
archygriswald avatar
cn flag
@NikitaKipriyanov Amazing! Thank You. If you post this as an answer I will accept it.
I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

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