Does GRUB switch to protected mode?
I would like to ask if it is GRUB that switch the CPU to protected mode during boot up or is it the Linux kernel that does it. And also I would like to ask - is the kernel itself (vmlinuz) an ELF or is it plain binary format? Thanks. GRUB does drop you in protected mode. The GRUB Multiboot Specification (version 0.6.96) Section 3.2 tells you this ‘CR0’ Bit 31 (PG) must be cleared. Bit 0 (PE) must be set. Other bits are all undefined. And CR0 Register mapping tells you that the system should be in protected mode. Linux is not a multiboot kernel and does not rely on some bootloader for switching