[xelxebar]

"Understanding the Linux Kernel", by Bovet and Cesati, has a pretty nice section at the beginning that discusses bootup. Of course, the discussion of the Linux kernel boot sequence is extremely nice and detailed, but there is also a nice appendix that gives a pretty decent overview of the pre-kernel stuff, too.

Crucially, for x86, you will need to understand segmentation and paging, which Bovet and Cesati discuss at length. Highly recommended.

It's quite fun to download the 2.6 sources yourself and dig in the code along as you read. The book makes it quite easy to find the relevant files.

[DEADBEEFC0FFEE]

Thanks, I will have a look for that.