Linux boot process

- OS: GNU + Linux - Boot partition: /dev/sda1 After the MBR makes its decision on which is the active partition (boot partition), it gives control to the Kernel Boot Loader, generally GRUB, to load the kernel image, which is located in /boot/vmlinuz. But here the device sda1 is still *not mounted*, at this particular step. Also all the GRUB configuration files are in the /boot/grub directory. I am thinking that to access files, one must first mount that device, which contains the file, to a directory in the root file system. Correct me if I am wrong? So how will GRUB get its configuration files and the kernel image vmlinuz, without sda1 being mounted?