Re: [PATCH] enable multiboot2 loader on i386-ieee1275

[Marco Gerards <mgerards@xs4all.nl>]

Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com> writes:

> On Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 11:13:15AM +0100, Marco Gerards wrote:
>> Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com> writes:
>> 
>> >> Can't you use a tag for the pointer?
>> >
>> > We can, but that's not useful.  If we can't make them compatible, I find it
>> > more feasible to write a separate loader for OFW images.
>> 
>> Why not?
>
> Because right now you can turn an existing ELF program into Multiboot-compliance
> with only adding three lines:
>
> 	.long   0xe85250d6
> 	.long   0
> 	.long   -0xe85250d6
>
> this will allow you to boot it with GRUB.  OTOH, if you have to add support
> for tag processing, and change the way it initialises its callback pointer,
> that makes it less worthwile.

True.

>> > Though I don't see why not do it.  The boot abi is already compatible on
>> > PowerPC:
>> >
>> >   http://grub.enbug.org/MultibootDraft#head-198f9346038a3782a8263de281dd9cf2eb2759a8
>> 
>> Do you suggest to change the interface for x86?
>
> Yes.  Multiboot2 is still a draft and not widely used (not even in comparison to
> Multiboot1).  I don't think it's a big problem to change this.

We could use ebx or so.  Or will this cause new problems?

--
Marco