Re: Move BSD and multiboot boot helper out of the kernel to their respective modules

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 01:08:26PM +0100, phcoder wrote:
> Hello. On the IRC discussion it was said that removing call to 
> grub_dl_unload_all_modules isn't a good thing. I would like to discuss 
> this on the list
> 1) Call to this functon is present only on i386-pc
> 2) I would suggest an interface for preboot hooks if modules needs to do 
> something before booting
> 3) If it's really needed to unload modules one could add a function 
> grub_dl_unload_all_modules_except (grub_dl_t *mod)
> Then the module before booting kernel would call this function and after 
> it no external calls are allowed.
> 4) Not being able to add a new kernel type by module alone is IMHO a 
> severe limitation to module infrastructure
> Thanks

Or perhaps we could avoid grub_dl_unload_all_modules altogether.  For example,
gfxterm might think that graphical mode needs to be disabled when it's
unloaded, but the OS loader knows better.  You could want to tell your OS
about the framebuffer state so it can be used by it without glitches.

The same would apply, for example, to stopping the floppy drive.  Instead
of waiting for the drive to tell us it has stopped, we could tell the OS
it's still spinning if our loader knows how to do that (and the OS knows
how to receive this information).

-- 
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."