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## 4 Installation

In order to install GRUB as your boot loader, you need to first install the GRUB system and utilities under your UNIX-like operating system (see How to obtain and build GRUB). You can do this either from the source tarball, or as a package for your OS.

After you have done that, you need to install the boot loader on a drive (floppy or hard disk) by using the utility `grub-install` (see Invoking grub-install) on a UNIX-like OS.

GRUB comes with boot images, which are normally put in the directory `/usr/lib/grub/<cpu>-<platform>` (for BIOS-based machines `/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc`). Hereafter, the directory where GRUB images are initially placed (normally `/usr/lib/grub/<cpu>-<platform>`) will be called the image directory, and the directory where the boot loader needs to find them (usually `/boot`) will be called the boot directory.