2. Terminology

Throughout this document, the term boot loader means whatever program or set of programs loads the image of the final operating system to be run on the machine. The boot loader may itself consist of several stages, but that is an implementation detail not relevant to this specification. Only the final stage of the boot loader -- the stage that eventually transfers control to the operating system --- needs to follow the rules specified in this document in order to be MultiBoot compliant; earlier boot loader stages can be designed in whatever way is most convenient.

The term OS image is used to refer to the initial binary image that the boot loader loads into memory and transfers control to start the operating system. The OS image is typically an executable containing the operating system kernel.

The term boot module refers to other auxiliary files that the boot loader loads into memory along with the OS image, but does not interpret in any way other than passing their locations to the operating system when it is invoked.