OpenSolaris-Derived Illumos Switching Away From GRUB 0.97 To A New Bootloader

The OpenSolaris-derived Illumos project is rolling out its new bootloader project to use on new systems in place of its old GRUB (v0.97) legacy bootloader.

This new bootloader for Illumos is derived from the FreeBSD boot loader. Illumos developers are switching away from GRUB-Legacy to this new loader in order to support functionality like UEFI booting, RAID-Z, and other modern features. The FreeBSD loader won the decision for the Illumos job rather than GRUB2.

Initially, Illumos developers will continue supporting GRUB for booting to the Solaris-based operating system but that will likely change down the road. Those interested in details can read this mailing list announcement with the details.