Re: multiboot2: make multiboot header optional

[Marco Gerards <mgerards@xs4all.nl>]

"Yoshinori K. Okuji" <okuji@enbug.org> writes:

> On Wednesday 15 November 2006 19:42, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
>> > If the operating system kernel is stupid enough to require as special
>> > video mode the user should be aware of that and setup the bootloader
>> > so that it is in that mode before the kernel is started.
>>
>> The only information in the multiboot header is a) the load addresses
>> for a.out and "other" formats, and b) the VGA info.
>>
>> We could certainly drop the VGA info.
>
> No. The problem is that a kernel cannot initialize VESA in protected mode in 
> some BIOSes. If you need more info, please dig into the archive of bug-grub.

Right, but now the kernel tells the user while video mode to use.  So
either it is hardcoded in the kernel, or the user has to change the
kernel to change video modes.  I think this is weird and this was
never implemented this way.

What I prefer is making it possible for the user to select the video
mode.  In that case the kernel will become a bit more complex, because
it has to deal with more situations, but I do not really see this as a
problem.

--
Marco