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5) The boot procedure (simplified)

When we start a computer which runs Linux these are the stages:

1)   BIOS POST.

2)   Reading Lilo from the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the disk.

3)   Lilo reads the kernel from /boot and puts it in the memory.

4)   The kernel runs 'init'

5)   Init brings up the system, through all the startup scripts.

6)   A shell is being loaded (text based or GUI), and displayed to the user.

     Lilo can hide in other place other then the MBR but then something must call it.

Adding a working service is just by changing or adding to the startup scripts (again, system can be controlled without GUI).

The shell can be chosen by the root, and can be set per-user choise.

Unlike the kernel, run-level can be changed during runtime, by running /sbin/init <the desired runlevel>. For example," /sbin/init 5" to start graphic login.