GRUB and network (Re: GRUB and Google Summer of Code)

["Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko" <phcoder@gmail.com>]

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Alex Zanetti de Lima wrote:
> We discussed that with Vladimir, who pointed out the following drawbacks:
> 1) Current implementation was BOOTP/TFTP only. No support for other protocols.
> 2) Almost no shared code between architectures.
> 3) 100% dependent on OFW.
>
>   
And it messed up with memory allocation since there is no way of
requesting only portion of file or know file size
> We are now working on a network infrastructure that could be shared by all 
> platforms, including protocols, device drivers, etc. Gpxe project is a good 
> start point, and most of things are being developed based on it.
>
> Chances are that we'll have something working on x86 soon, and then we'll start 
> adding support for PPC (access to PCI bus via OFW, VIO, device drivers for some 
> very specific cards like ehea, etc).
>
>   

It's nice to hear.
But pay attention to license: not every piece of gpxe code is
license-compatible with grub2.
I would like to make an infrastructure for networking part of grub
itself since gpxe doesn't help much with configuration routines (this
part needs to be rewritten because gpxe environment is very different).
But the drivers imported from gpxe are likely to go into grub-extras.
Also high-level protocols like http have to be enhanced in grub since
gpxe implementation doesn't support seek even if protocol and server does.
When you or Manoel want to share something you're welcome to upload to
people or branches. It will allow easier collaboration and public review.

-- 
Regards
Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko



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