From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1JHPDH-0003FQ-Rm for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:55:15 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JHPDF-0003Ew-Ih for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:55:13 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JHPDE-0003EM-37 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:55:13 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JHPDD-0003EA-QP for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:55:11 -0500 Received: from aybabtu.com ([69.60.117.155]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JHPDD-00056T-4O for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:55:11 -0500 Received: from [192.168.10.6] (helo=thorin) by aybabtu.com with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1JHPDB-0003F3-5t for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:55:09 +0100 Received: from rmh by thorin with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1JHPBl-0005fm-LP for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:53:41 +0100 Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:53:41 +0100 From: Robert Millan To: The development of GRUB 2 Message-ID: <20080122195341.GA21526@thorin> References: <20071230134824.GB21397@thorin> <20080120232435.GB16365@thorin> <20080122135757.GA11484@thorin> <20080122165152.GA16578@thorin> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: Organization: free as in freedom X-Message-Flag: Worried about Outlook viruses? Switch to Thunderbird! www.mozilla.com/thunderbird X-Debbugs-No-Ack: true User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. Subject: Re: [PATCH] memdisk plus lnxboot extension 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, 22 Jan 2008 19:55:13 -0000 On Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 01:17:43AM +0800, Bean wrote: > On Jan 23, 2008 12:51 AM, Robert Millan wrote: > > I don't like this very much. We don't have grub-mkimage options to concatenate > > it with boot.img, so why with lnxboot.img ? > > The reason for new option is that the length of core.img needs to > stored in lnxboot.img. Previously, i calculate the size using > information in core.img header, but now there is issue, for example, > > 1. > kernel lnxboot.img > initrd core.img > > 2. > cat lnxboot.img core.img > grub2.bin > kernel grub2.bin > initrd memdisk > > 1 and 2 looks the same to lnxboot header, it can't decide initrd is > used as memdisk or core.img. However, 1 may not be that useful after > all, we can disable this kind of usage. I didn't know you had 1 in mind. Yes, I think it's better to restrict us to 2 for now. I don't really see a big benefit in 2 vs just using "grub-mkimage -m", but I suppose if it's not too intrusive it doesn't harm. > > Also, I can only think of very specific situations in which this interface > > would be useful (that is, when firmware has only a linux loader). It makes > > sense to me as a compatibility layer, yes. > > > > But it seems you want it as a general-purpose option; for that, why not make > > it saner like multiboot? I don't think it's a good idea to compromise our > > boot semantics because of the ones legacy Linux has. > > is multiboot support memdisk or something similar ? I'm not very familiar with multiboot, but it supports modules (an arbitrary number of them, I think). Then again, we still need a use case before adding a feature. The obvious use case for having lnxboot is booting from firmware that only supports booting Linux, but for other stuff I still don't see it. I mean, the initial purpose of memdisk was that you could _embed_ data in core.img itself. Using it as a loader feature sounds a bit contradictory to me... perhaps if you explain what situations do you have in mind where this would be helpful, I'd understand your point better. -- Robert Millan I know my rights; I want my phone call! What use is a phone call… if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.)