From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1LeXVY-0001MU-Pz for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:30:16 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LeXVX-0001MN-PO for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:30:15 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LeXVV-0001MB-Hc for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:30:14 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=41878 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LeXVV-0001M8-Eh for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:30:13 -0500 Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com ([72.14.220.153]:16201) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LeXVU-0000CN-Vy for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:30:13 -0500 Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id l27so101433fgb.30 for ; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:11 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=znsWmdNzZ24KcOsDxtd04EEw7vUtYVihIfTvGmEHpTU=; b=r1bOjqIYspgfRygjuSjyFKBfuiTSrTZHRm45WkprZgxKchX+WzZvIYwvmZ+PrOLrU4 s4HxMJaJlXIW9wQf4Mes5ClBq6FLePSpf4hTUYUEeigh+rPBe6O+iUMZNkKIBh9CjOrr gE6TSr1Q3iuP/eWkCMwxDBNOmdKZrERHuYEiE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=o6MVe7at02ZoblpLqiUXDNVzYuvSBPwUw+EGsMYnZDAp2R3jp/H8wXmjGZUPf1XjHX 5TszuafhG6uDXThPQ3U1puOo2TxH2zh7lHhlExmkflJeOzFeiSexYOe7w7Wogul1+f9y MXlQAABbNZSKZWiMvqBbz8/sFTxdlg+NDoMB0= Received: by 10.86.99.9 with SMTP id w9mr819687fgb.12.1236097811568; Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from ?192.168.1.2? (20-72.3-85.cust.bluewin.ch [85.3.72.20]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id d6sm812140fga.42.2009.03.03.08.30.10 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:11 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <49AD5B12.8090904@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:30:10 +0100 From: phcoder User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (X11/20090105) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: The development of GRUB 2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Subject: multiboot2 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, 03 Mar 2009 16:30:15 -0000 Hello I was looking into multiboot2 specifications and have some suggestions: 1) double the size of flags. 8 features per category seems to be few. it could even be made completely expandable by the following format: ... 2) "All undefined flags *should* be set to zero for future use. " IMO in this place all OSes should be required to follow this rule in current terminology it would be "must" 3) "The physical address to which the boot loader should jump in order to start running the operating system." In current terminology should make no real sense here 4) "This tag should contain a string that enables operating systems to distinguish between different bootloaders and different versions of the same bootloader." Parsing strings may be difficult. Perhaps we could include a version tag with a format dependent on bootloader and optionally a requirement that higher numbers are newer versions? 5)memory map: "The order of memory maps is not guaranteed but a boot loader should sort the items based on the starting addresses. " I don't like the optionality of this rule if it's included in specifications it should be either required or dropped altogether. Otherwise we risk to have OSes which rely on sorting and bootloaders which doesn't sort. I'm personally for making it mandatory for reasons similar to next entry 6) memory map. " Tags of this type should be omitted on architectures where the OS is able to retrieve this information from firmware. (Doing do will encourage OS portability across bootloaders, and simplify GRUB development and maintenance.) " This contradicts the goal of easier OS developement and may result in semi-compatible OS and bootloaders. Additionally I think that eliminating the necessity of use of firmware from OS is a good thing and allows easier porting between architectures differing only by firmware 7) Command line tag. I propose to reserve the identifier 0x0005 for command line and make it the same format as "Boot Loader Name" but arguments shouldn't include kernel image name. This way we would prevent OSes from trying to access this file by bootloader-specific name. In addition in both "Boot Loader Name" and "Command-line" we should specify the encoding to be utf-8 -- Regards Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko