The Linux booting process begins when the user turns on the computer. The BIOS loads and runs a power-on self-test before finding the bootable devices and loading the boot sector from the master boot record (MBR). The MBR then loads the boot loader, such as GRUB or LILO, which loads the Linux kernel into memory and passes control to it. The kernel initializes essential system components and starts the init process, which launches other processes according to the runlevel configuration to complete the system startup.