From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1KcMdD-0001rE-VY for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:56:56 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KcMdB-0001pP-3x for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:56:53 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KcMd9-0001oQ-Qh for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:56:52 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=34141 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KcMd9-0001oN-Lr for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:56:51 -0400 Received: from aybabtu.com ([69.60.117.155]:34589) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KcMd9-0005uY-Gq for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:56:51 -0400 Received: from [192.168.10.10] (helo=thorin) by aybabtu.com with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KcMSS-0005em-DD for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:45:48 +0200 Received: from rmh by thorin with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1KcMbe-0001dj-0i for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:55:18 +0200 Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2008 17:55:18 +0200 From: Robert Millan To: The development of GRUB 2 Message-ID: <20080907155517.GA6040@thorin> References: <48C16C17.2000803@gmail.com> <20080906112003.GA14991@thorin> <48C31F5F.6060808@gmail.com> <48C381EF.3070703@nic.fi> <48C3B666.1060605@gmail.com> <48C3BD32.5050109@nic.fi> <48C3C7A1.3080200@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <48C3C7A1.3080200@gmail.com> 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: [RFC] general-usage real-mode loader 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: Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:56:53 -0000 On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 02:22:57PM +0200, phcoder wrote: > 4) DOS/Win9x and freedos. Especially the second one. They use extended > chainloader functionality found in grub4dos. With rmkern loading freedos > kernel should be really easy. Since FreeDOS is free software, we could fix it to use Multiboot instead. > 5) Loading winnt (ntldr) and winvista (bootmgr) Ah, and there's a free replacement for NTLDR as well, see: http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/FreeLoader > 6) Many other different proprietary and free OS. I don't know enough > about them to say that this or that one can benefit from it but suppose > many OS can be booted easier and more reliable with this functionality. > 7) rmkern command. Experienced users, hobbysts and OS-developpers can > enter manually the state in which they want their kernel to be loaded. > May be handy also for reverse engineering I think people (specially OS developers) should contemplate obsoleting the i8086 someday... Some of the examples you give are things we should indeed support (most specially the chainloader), but I'm not sure if it's worthy to spend so much effort in extending them. IMHO we should push for a sane standard like Multiboot instead. But I can't tell you what to do with your time, of course... -- Robert Millan The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."