From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1CqvlV-0008T0-GF for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:59:34 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CqvlO-0008Qf-BX for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:59:27 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CqvlH-0008NM-QU for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:59:20 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CqvlG-0008Hl-Fg for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:59:18 -0500 Received: from [212.43.237.68] (helo=kotoba.storever.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1CqvOg-0007gz-LY for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:35:59 -0500 Received: from ASSP-nospam (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by kotoba.storever.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 83851F8D48A1 for ; Tue, 18 Jan 2005 16:35:53 +0100 (CET) Received: from 127.0.0.1 ([127.0.0.1] helo=localhost) by ASSP-nospam ; 18 Jan 05 15:35:53 -0000 From: "Yoshinori K. Okuji" Organization: enbug.org To: The development of GRUB 2 Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 16:36:08 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.7.1 References: <1D080FCA-64FE-11D9-B21C-000A95A0560C@penguinppc.org> <98B29D3E-6960-11D9-A482-000A95A0560C@penguinppc.org> In-Reply-To: <98B29D3E-6960-11D9-A482-000A95A0560C@penguinppc.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200501181636.09127.okuji@enbug.org> Subject: Re: device syntax again X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 15:59:29 -0000 On Tuesday 18 January 2005 15:52, Hollis Blanchard wrote: > For now let's not talk about where aliases are created. What about my > original question: grub has just booted, and when it asks what device > it was booted from (the /chosen/bootpath property) it gets this: > /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0 > (that is the real "disk" device on Vincent's UltraSparc). The next > thing we want to do is load a config file from the same device. What > value should we put into "prefix"? This has already been discussed. Marco suggested to have a "boot drive" for this. > Is the only reason you're suggesting this "alias" scheme is to keep > the PC-style device syntax? Don't call it "PC-style". This is not accurate. It is GRUB-style as _we_ define the syntax. > 1) complexity and bugs in code to translate between the two, Why? You can simply register a new device with a device path. What is complex? > 2) frustrating UI requirements ("no no, you have to run 'alias' > first"), and GRUB can automatically create aliases. > 3) require users to learn yet another syntax. We have already discussed this, and I got no objection to my opinion at that time. I'm surprised that you refrain this. Don't assume that ordinary users know Open Firmware or EFI. Basically, they don't know anything quite technical. So GRUB should provide an unique syntax rule so that users do not have to learn new things when they get new architectures. And, have you ever asked any ordinary person to type /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0 rather than hd0? I'm sure that she will be scared. In addition, this would make remote assistance very hard. It should be easy to imagine how difficult it is to pronounce the long and mysterios string by phone. As far as I know, most people use /dev/hda instead of /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc on Linux, whenever possible. This is simply because shorter is easier. Ordinary people think "the first IDE disk" instead of "the hard disk attached to the master of the first IDE bus of the main controller". Don't you agree? Okuji