Post Syndicated from jzb original https://lwn.net/Articles/979789/

At DevConf.cz 2024,
Marta Lewandowska gave a talk to discuss a
new approach for booting Linux systems, “No more boot
loader: Please use the kernel instead“. The talk, available on
YouTube, introduced a new project called nmbl (for “no more bootloader”,
pronounced “nimble”). The idea is to get rid of bootloaders (e.g.,
GNU GRUB) with a
Unified
Kernel Image (UKI) that removes the need for a separate bootloader
altogether. It is early days for nmbl, currently the project is only
being tested for use with virtual machines, but the idea is
compelling. If successful, nmbl could offer security, performance, and
maintenance benefits compared to GRUB and other separate bootloaders.