Hello, guys!
First of all, we would like to thank you for being such an awesome bunch of individuals and for making this Community great! Welcome to a brand new blog post on the Community!
A lot of you've been asking for bootloader codes for your Huawei devices, so we thought it would be a good idea to develop the topic a little. Hence, our post for today called 'What is a bootloader?'. Let us get this started, shall we?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Let us start by defining a bootloader. We are going to trust our friends over at techopedia.com with that, which have defined the boot loader as 'a type of program that loads and starts the boot time tasks and processes of an operating system or the computer system. It enables loading the operating system within the computer memory when a computer is started or booted up. A boot loader is also known as a boot manager or bootstrap loader.'
In other words, a bootloader's job (just as its name most obviously suggests), is to integrate some methods to
boot the OS kernel, while also being able to encompass certain commands for debugging or altering the environment of the kernel. It essentially is one of the first that a user must go through during their interaction with a machine, so its degree of importance cannot be stressed enough.
TYPES OF BOOTLOADERS
The three main operating systems present on most computers globally, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux have each got their own particularities with regards to the bootloaders they comprise. For example, Windows and MAC-running devices come with pre-installed bootloaders that are compatible only with those specific operating systems.
Linux-running machines, however, have a different style. A certain bootloader needs to be installed on the machine in order for it to function. In this case, the user will either have to go with
LILO (LInux LOader) - the most commonly used bootloader by Linux users;
LOADLIN (LOAD LINux) - in case there are multiple OS's installed on the device;
or GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) - used adjacently with Red Hat Linux.
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE BOOTLOADER IS LOCKED BY THE MANUFACTURER?
It is oftentimes the case that manufacturers lock the bootloader on the devices they sell in order to prevent the installation of other operating systems. Why? To prevent the users from cracking and installing unauthorized software on the device and then ask the manufacturer to repair it as part of the warranty.
Although not recommended, the installation of custom OS's and implicitly bootloaders is still possible on certain device models. It is thus necessary to unlock the bootloader in order to run a different OS of your choice. Depending on the device model, this can be done either via downloading a particular piece of software, or by running a command.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The brick and mortar of user interaction with a machine, the bootloader is undoubtedly a crucial part when it comes to running a desired operating system. Stay tuned to more personalized content on our Community blog by subscribing to it! Thank you for reading this post!
