Patent ID: 8028155

Claim:
A method for booting an operating system utilizing a firmware in a computer system, the method comprising: installing a service option read-only memory (ROM) in a memory of the computer system, wherein the service option ROM includes program code for booting an operating system utilizing the firmware; retrieving a boot loader driver for the operating system from the firmware, wherein the boot loader driver is associated with an operating system boot loader stored in the firmware; copying the boot loader driver to the memory of the computer system; executing the operating system boot loader; locating the service option ROM in the memory; utilizing the service option ROM to add identifying information for the boot loader driver to a list of initial program load (IPL) devices; displaying a list of available IPL devices on a display, wherein the list of available IPL devices includes the identifying information for the boot loader driver; and receiving a selection of the boot loader driver from a user.