Alternative Boot Loaders

If you do not wish to use a boot loader, you have several alternatives:

LOADLIN

You can load Linux from MS-DOS. Unfortunately, this requires a copy of the Linux kernel (and an initial RAM disk, if you have a SCSI adapter) to be available on an MS-DOS partition. The only way to accomplish this is to boot your Linux system using some other method (for example, from a boot CD-ROM) and then copy the kernel to an MS-DOS partition. LOADLIN is available from

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/dualboot/ 

and associated mirror sites.

SYSLINUX

SYSLINUX is an MS-DOS program very similar to LOADLIN. It is also available from

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/loaders/ 

and associated mirror sites.

Commercial boot loaders

You can load Linux using commercial boot loaders. For example, System Commander and Partition Magic are able to boot Linux (but still require GRUB to be installed in your Linux root partition).