From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1JHl1a-0003tl-Lt for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:12:38 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JHl1Z-0003qB-4R for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:12:37 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JHl1X-0003mB-E5 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:12:36 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JHl1X-0003lt-Aa for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:12:35 -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 1JHl1X-0007Pz-4v for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:12:35 -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 1JHl1P-0005jd-Gl for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:12:28 +0100 Received: from rmh by thorin with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1JHkzw-0004B0-UU for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:10:56 +0100 Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:10:56 +0100 From: Robert Millan To: The development of GRUB 2 Message-ID: <20080123191056.GA15742@thorin> References: <20071230134824.GB21397@thorin> <20080120232435.GB16365@thorin> <20080122135757.GA11484@thorin> <873asoudkm.fsf@xs4all.nl> 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: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:12:37 -0000 On Thu, Jan 24, 2008 at 12:18:43AM +0800, Bean wrote: > On Jan 23, 2008 4:54 PM, Marco Gerards wrote: > > When is this feature useful? Can you give an example? More features > > can mean more bugs, more maintainance work, etc. If the feature is > > not worthwhile for more than one person, I am not sure if it should be > > included. Perhaps a better explaination of the problem to solve, > > instead of what the patch does might help here. > > the most important usage of external initrd is to overcome the size > limit of core.img. I understand that it overcomes a size limit, but, in which situations would this be used? core.img is primarily targetted at being used with grub-setup (where memdisk isn't needed), to be chainloaded from GRUB Legacy (where memdisk isn't necessary either), or to build a rescue floppy (where this feature, in principle, can't be used). Do you have other uses of core.img in mind? And in the case of rescue floppies, if we find a way to overcome the size limit via loading memdisk image separately, I don't think using Linux boot semantics is the best way to do it. Linux excels at a lot of things, but its boot mechanism is full of legacy cruft. I don't think it's the best option to take as a reference to implement GRUB. -- 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 /.)