Does 'rm -fr` remove the boot loader?Add an entry for Ubuntu on Windows 8 boot loaderUninstall Grub and use...
Do authors have to be politically correct in article-writing?
Why did Bush enact a completely different foreign policy to that which he espoused during the 2000 Presidential election campaign?
Why do members of Congress in committee hearings ask witnesses the same question multiple times?
What is the purpose of easy combat scenarios that don't need resource expenditure?
Are there any outlying considerations if I treat donning a shield as an object interaction during the first round of combat?
Why would the Pakistan airspace closure cancel flights not headed to Pakistan itself?
How should I handle players who ignore the session zero agreement?
Program that converts a number to a letter of the alphabet
I am on the US no-fly list. What can I do in order to be allowed on flights which go through US airspace?
A starship is travelling at 0.9c and collides with a small rock. Will it leave a clean hole through, or will more happen?
Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
How to generate a matrix with certain conditions
Number of FLOP (Floating Point Operations) for exponentiation
The vanishing of sum of coefficients: symmetric polynomials
What do you call a fact that doesn't match the settings?
Can we use the stored gravitational potential energy of a building to produce power?
Approaches to criticizing short fiction
Eww, those bytes are gross
Slow moving projectiles from a hand-held weapon - how do they reach the target?
What is the etymology of the kanji 食?
What's the most convenient time of year in the USA to end the world?
Why avoid shared user accounts?
Compound Interest... with Wizard Money
Longest Jewish year
Does 'rm -fr` remove the boot loader?
Add an entry for Ubuntu on Windows 8 boot loaderUninstall Grub and use Windows bootloaderAfter install grub boot loader does not showWhat is the difference between boot loader and bootstrap loader?No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda. Is that some pain to a only Win8.1 system?ubuntu does not boot upIs there a Boot-Repair for Ubuntu 15.04?Revert to original Apple Boot LoaderGrub2 does not load windows loader in multiboot systemBoot Loader failing to load windows 10
I learned that the boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM and today’s PCs is constructed with flash memory technology so it could be altered under special circumstances.
Is rm -rf / is the special circumstance?
Does rm -rf remove the boot loader?
boot
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
add a comment |
I learned that the boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM and today’s PCs is constructed with flash memory technology so it could be altered under special circumstances.
Is rm -rf / is the special circumstance?
Does rm -rf remove the boot loader?
boot
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
add a comment |
I learned that the boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM and today’s PCs is constructed with flash memory technology so it could be altered under special circumstances.
Is rm -rf / is the special circumstance?
Does rm -rf remove the boot loader?
boot
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
I learned that the boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM and today’s PCs is constructed with flash memory technology so it could be altered under special circumstances.
Is rm -rf / is the special circumstance?
Does rm -rf remove the boot loader?
boot
boot
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
asked 1 hour ago
AliceAlice
426110
426110
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
TL;DR: rm -rf / doesn't remove bootloader itself, but everything that bootloader needs (and everything OS needs to function).
boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM
Not quite. On most modern systems, bootloader can be either on Master Boot Record part of the disk - the first 512 MB - or it can be on separate device (see also). And to quote Wikipedia about linux kernel image:
...limitations on some i386 systems meant only the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk were addressable.
To overcome this, Linux distributors encouraged users to create a partition at the beginning of their drives specifically for storing bootloader and kernel related files.
Embedded systems, such as Raspberry Pi, may in fact have a bootloader (or first stage bootloader) in ROM.
rm -rf / like any other command is loaded in memory and executed from there, so it removes recursively everything in / directory (/ filesystem), including its own original file /bin/rm. It generally knows nothing about MBR partition and operates only on all files/directories that can be found under /.
In other words, the first 512 MB of disk that have the bootloader itself aren't removed, but /boot directory is removed, and that does contain configuration files for bootloader (typically GRUB) and temporary filesystem initrd.img which is loaded before the main / filesystem. If you look at the Grub rescue article on linux.com, you'll see that even though bootloader itself might be working, it has to know the disk on which root filesystem is located, where kernel image vmlinuz is located, and initrd. That is, the example they give in grub's shell is
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub> boot
where (hd0,1) identifies disk and partition with root filesystem.
Even though bootloader itself is not removed, when /boot alone is removed that does lead to problems. In case of rm -rf / you are removing everything from filesystem, including init - the very first process, the kernel
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "89"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f1122619%2fdoes-rm-fr-remove-the-boot-loader%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
TL;DR: rm -rf / doesn't remove bootloader itself, but everything that bootloader needs (and everything OS needs to function).
boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM
Not quite. On most modern systems, bootloader can be either on Master Boot Record part of the disk - the first 512 MB - or it can be on separate device (see also). And to quote Wikipedia about linux kernel image:
...limitations on some i386 systems meant only the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk were addressable.
To overcome this, Linux distributors encouraged users to create a partition at the beginning of their drives specifically for storing bootloader and kernel related files.
Embedded systems, such as Raspberry Pi, may in fact have a bootloader (or first stage bootloader) in ROM.
rm -rf / like any other command is loaded in memory and executed from there, so it removes recursively everything in / directory (/ filesystem), including its own original file /bin/rm. It generally knows nothing about MBR partition and operates only on all files/directories that can be found under /.
In other words, the first 512 MB of disk that have the bootloader itself aren't removed, but /boot directory is removed, and that does contain configuration files for bootloader (typically GRUB) and temporary filesystem initrd.img which is loaded before the main / filesystem. If you look at the Grub rescue article on linux.com, you'll see that even though bootloader itself might be working, it has to know the disk on which root filesystem is located, where kernel image vmlinuz is located, and initrd. That is, the example they give in grub's shell is
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub> boot
where (hd0,1) identifies disk and partition with root filesystem.
Even though bootloader itself is not removed, when /boot alone is removed that does lead to problems. In case of rm -rf / you are removing everything from filesystem, including init - the very first process, the kernel
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
add a comment |
TL;DR: rm -rf / doesn't remove bootloader itself, but everything that bootloader needs (and everything OS needs to function).
boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM
Not quite. On most modern systems, bootloader can be either on Master Boot Record part of the disk - the first 512 MB - or it can be on separate device (see also). And to quote Wikipedia about linux kernel image:
...limitations on some i386 systems meant only the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk were addressable.
To overcome this, Linux distributors encouraged users to create a partition at the beginning of their drives specifically for storing bootloader and kernel related files.
Embedded systems, such as Raspberry Pi, may in fact have a bootloader (or first stage bootloader) in ROM.
rm -rf / like any other command is loaded in memory and executed from there, so it removes recursively everything in / directory (/ filesystem), including its own original file /bin/rm. It generally knows nothing about MBR partition and operates only on all files/directories that can be found under /.
In other words, the first 512 MB of disk that have the bootloader itself aren't removed, but /boot directory is removed, and that does contain configuration files for bootloader (typically GRUB) and temporary filesystem initrd.img which is loaded before the main / filesystem. If you look at the Grub rescue article on linux.com, you'll see that even though bootloader itself might be working, it has to know the disk on which root filesystem is located, where kernel image vmlinuz is located, and initrd. That is, the example they give in grub's shell is
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub> boot
where (hd0,1) identifies disk and partition with root filesystem.
Even though bootloader itself is not removed, when /boot alone is removed that does lead to problems. In case of rm -rf / you are removing everything from filesystem, including init - the very first process, the kernel
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
add a comment |
TL;DR: rm -rf / doesn't remove bootloader itself, but everything that bootloader needs (and everything OS needs to function).
boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM
Not quite. On most modern systems, bootloader can be either on Master Boot Record part of the disk - the first 512 MB - or it can be on separate device (see also). And to quote Wikipedia about linux kernel image:
...limitations on some i386 systems meant only the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk were addressable.
To overcome this, Linux distributors encouraged users to create a partition at the beginning of their drives specifically for storing bootloader and kernel related files.
Embedded systems, such as Raspberry Pi, may in fact have a bootloader (or first stage bootloader) in ROM.
rm -rf / like any other command is loaded in memory and executed from there, so it removes recursively everything in / directory (/ filesystem), including its own original file /bin/rm. It generally knows nothing about MBR partition and operates only on all files/directories that can be found under /.
In other words, the first 512 MB of disk that have the bootloader itself aren't removed, but /boot directory is removed, and that does contain configuration files for bootloader (typically GRUB) and temporary filesystem initrd.img which is loaded before the main / filesystem. If you look at the Grub rescue article on linux.com, you'll see that even though bootloader itself might be working, it has to know the disk on which root filesystem is located, where kernel image vmlinuz is located, and initrd. That is, the example they give in grub's shell is
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub> boot
where (hd0,1) identifies disk and partition with root filesystem.
Even though bootloader itself is not removed, when /boot alone is removed that does lead to problems. In case of rm -rf / you are removing everything from filesystem, including init - the very first process, the kernel
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
TL;DR: rm -rf / doesn't remove bootloader itself, but everything that bootloader needs (and everything OS needs to function).
boot loader is permanently stored in the machine's ROM
Not quite. On most modern systems, bootloader can be either on Master Boot Record part of the disk - the first 512 MB - or it can be on separate device (see also). And to quote Wikipedia about linux kernel image:
...limitations on some i386 systems meant only the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk were addressable.
To overcome this, Linux distributors encouraged users to create a partition at the beginning of their drives specifically for storing bootloader and kernel related files.
Embedded systems, such as Raspberry Pi, may in fact have a bootloader (or first stage bootloader) in ROM.
rm -rf / like any other command is loaded in memory and executed from there, so it removes recursively everything in / directory (/ filesystem), including its own original file /bin/rm. It generally knows nothing about MBR partition and operates only on all files/directories that can be found under /.
In other words, the first 512 MB of disk that have the bootloader itself aren't removed, but /boot directory is removed, and that does contain configuration files for bootloader (typically GRUB) and temporary filesystem initrd.img which is loaded before the main / filesystem. If you look at the Grub rescue article on linux.com, you'll see that even though bootloader itself might be working, it has to know the disk on which root filesystem is located, where kernel image vmlinuz is located, and initrd. That is, the example they give in grub's shell is
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub> boot
where (hd0,1) identifies disk and partition with root filesystem.
Even though bootloader itself is not removed, when /boot alone is removed that does lead to problems. In case of rm -rf / you are removing everything from filesystem, including init - the very first process, the kernel
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
edited 46 mins ago
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
answered 1 hour ago
Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy
73.4k9153318
73.4k9153318
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Ask Ubuntu!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f1122619%2fdoes-rm-fr-remove-the-boot-loader%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
