I'm looking for a way to learn about and understand this technique. Here's what I'm talking about:Slax boots, {does stuff, like copy itself to RAM}, then transitions control to the kernel/file system it just madeSYSLINUX boots off a FAT32/NTFS system, {does stuff}, then boots into a kernelISOLINUX boots off a CD/DVD, {does stuff} then boots into a kernelIs there a name for this? Is it similar in GRUB when using chainloading?GRUB boots, loads selection menu, does selection. If it's a chainloading selection, it passes control to something else.I'm looking for how I can use one kernel to extract an .iso (from a FAT32/NTFS partition) into RAM, then boot off the RAM drive as if it had been there at startup. For more details as to why I want to do this, see this question.Here, however, I'm just asking for details about how a kernel transitions to another. Is there a name for this? I've heard of INT13h which I believe is used in GRUB/chainloading. Is this a technique to 'reboot into a different kernel'? If not, how is this done?
How does kernel swapping / INT 13h interrupts work?
kernel;boot;boot loader
I'm guessing this is how: http://linux.die.net/man/8/kexeckexec(8) - Linux man pageNamekexec - directly boot into a new kernel Synopsis/sbin/kexec [-v (--version)] [-f (--force)] [-x (--no-ifdown)] [-l  (--load)] [-p (--load-panic)] [-u (--unload)] [-e (--exec)] [-t  (--type)] [--mem-min=addr] [--mem-max=addr] Descriptionkexec is a system call that enables you to load and boot into another  kernel from the currently running kernel. kexec performs the function  of the boot loader from within the kernel. The primary difference  between a standard system boot and a kexec boot is that the hardware  initialization normally performed by the BIOS or firmware (depending  on architecture) is not performed during a kexec boot. This has the  effect of reducing the time required for a reboot. Make sure you have  selected CONFIG_KEXEC=y when configuring the kernel. The CONFIG_KEXEC  option enables the kexec system call.