What happens when linux starts?
 

Could someone do a breakdown for me?
What is the process that takes place when a distro like ubuntu starts?
after bios has handed off grub/lilo? what takes place?

If this is too large a subject I'd happily read anything you guys could reference me too also...

Grub legacy typically loads a couple of config files and then boots the linux kernel. For ubuntu, the kernel loads modules and services are supplied via Upstart, a replacement for the old sys V init systems.

So I'd start looking through Grub/lilo docs and then move on to the init systems.

I don't know much in the way of specifics, but look up Upstart to understand the event based boot up of ubuntu. Sys V Init is the old system still employed by many linux distributions. But most of them are moving to event based systems.

If I were you, I would start by booting a system then looking at the /var/log/messages log file. Some of the messages are a bit cryptic, but you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what is going on.

HTH
Dave