![[image of the Head of a GNU]](/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg)
GNU GRUB is a Multiboot boot loader. It was derived from GRUB, GRand Unified Bootloader, which was originally designed and implemented by Erich Stefan Boleyn.
Briefly, boot loader is the first software program that runs when a computer starts. It is responsible for loading and transferring control to the operating system kernel software (such as the Hurd or the Linux). The kernel, in turn, initializes the rest of the operating system (e.g. GNU).
GNU GRUB follows these requirements below:
In addition to the requirements above, GNU GRUB has the following features:
For now, GNU GRUB is not released publicly yet, but you can still get the test releases from alpha.gnu.org:/gnu/grub, and the latest version from the CVS. See our project page on Savannah, for more information.
If you have a question or a trouble, see GNU GRUB FAQ first.
You can browse the documentation of GNU GRUB by "info grub"
on your shell prompt (or use your favorite Info browser, if you don't like
info).
Also, you can see the online manual with your web browser.
When you encounter a problem or a bug, check if the Bug Tracking System stores the same problem. Also, take a look at the GNU GRUB FAQ. This may have a useful suggestion about your problem.
If you didn't find information about your problem, read the chapter Reporting bugs in the manual. Very often, people ask us their questions with little or even no information about their systems. That's quite useless, because we have to guess what you did, what was displayed and what really happened. Please notice that we may not see your computer directly. So, whenever you report a bug, you must include enough information so that we can understand what happened and even reproduce your problem in our own machines.
Once you have realized how to write a bug report, please submit it to the Bug Tracking System with information about your computer and what you did as much as possible. Excessive information is always better than no information.
If you prefer using electronic mail, you can submit a report to the mailing list <bug-grub@gnu.org>. However, we strongly recommend that you use the Bug Tracking System, because e-mail can be passed over easily.
When you enhance and/or fix GNU GRUB, please send the patch to the Bug Tracking System. Don't forget to write ChangeLog; That helps us to understand your changes correctly. And it is preferable that your patch is in the unified format. Just append the -u option to the command diff.
If you have questions or want to have discussion about GNU GRUB, feel free to send electronic mail to <bug-grub@gnu.org>. It is a general discussion list.
If you'd like to subscribe/unsubscribe to this mailing list, see Bug-grub Info Page. The archive of the mailing-list is available for viewing.
GNU GRUB has another mailing list <commit-grub@gnu.org>, which is used for CVS commit notices. See Commit-grub Info Page, for more information.
We really need help by BSD hackers. Currently, almost nobody works for BSD-based operating systems, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. So we have critical problems in booting later versions of NetBSD and OpenBSD. FreeBSD is not a big problem, because GRUB can boot it via /boot/loader for now.
If you're willing to give help to us, please contact us.
Here are some useful resources:
Return to GNU's home page.
Copyright (C) 1999,2000,2001,2002 Yoshinori K. Okuji
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Last modified: Sun Nov 3 10:27:09 JST 2002
