From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <38C42165.3F7A6FEE@CalderaSystems.com> Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 14:21:41 -0700 From: Tim Riker MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kazunori Aoshima CC: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org, linuxppc-workstation@lists.linuxppc.org Subject: Re: bootloader ideas References: <38C355B5.951735EB@amberdata.demon.co.uk> <200003061229.VAA01945@mail.cc.tohoku.ac.jp> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org List-Id: I also believe that we need to move most of the platform-specific fixup code into a boot loader. I am looking into GRUB at this point: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/ The stage1 loader would need to have new ppc support, but this would allow for complete fs support in the stage2 loader. I will will look more at the other choices out there, but I've been real happy with grub on x86 and it is fairly clean code. stage2 is in C and shares much of the kernel FS code. Thoughts? Kazunori Aoshima wrote: > > Hi, > > Return for : > From: David Monro > on " bootloader ideas " > date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 06:52:37 +0000 >>> > > > Hi, > > > > I've been thinking about bootloaders. Particularly with respect to PReP > > machines. > > > > The current method of making the kernel a binary loaded by the firmware > > is a bit of a kluge. It means we have to jump through hoops to change > > kernel parameters etc. It seems to me there are two or three obvious > > approaches, but first I need some information. > > > > 1) What if any services does the PReP firmware provide once it loads an > > image? I'm guessing that it isn't a lot, just the residual data to tell > > us what hardware we have. I could be wrong here though - can anybody > > tell me where to find softcopy PReP documentation? > > > > 2) What does the ARC bootloader goop for NT provide in the way of > > services? I'm guessing rather more. In particular I suspect we have a > > way or reading files, by name, from a FAT16-formatted partition, and > > possibly passing them arguments, maybe stored in nvram. This is the way > > some Alpha systems do it; you set up an ARC boot entry to run a little > > executable (ldmilo.exe) which loads a file called 'milo' from the same > > directory and executes it. Milo then takes over and loads the kernel. > > > > Do all the PReP machines have ARC available for them? I would guess most > > do, but I could be wrong. > > I think so, too. > Some of PRePs cannot install because of ARC firmware. > They cannot rewrite itself from ARC to PRePspec firmware. > And, FireWorks PReP machines maybe needs such loader. > > If there are some bootloader like MILO, copy a loader kernel > on DOS based partition, it is very useful for all PRePs. > > MILO is ported on MIPS and Alpha based machines, they have some > relationship with ARC. Maybe they have a same root, and compiled > for each machines. (Is it true? Please correct me.) > > But I am afraid it need to make with original compiler. > (I suppose this needs some cross compile method for ARC-PPC. ) > > > IMHO milo itself is overkill; it actually contains an awful lot of the > > kernel code (basically the SCSI drivers etc) so that once loaded it can > > load the kernel from any device that linux knows about, even if the > > machine firmware and ARC don't know about it. The current PReP boot code > > covers that eventuality even if it is a bit of a kluge - as long as the > > kernel can be loaded by the firmware (even from floppy) it will work. > > Assuming that more PReP machines have ARC images available, I'd be > > interested in creating a bootloader which, once loaded from ARC, would > > be able to load a kernel image from a device ARC could read, using ARC > > services. Anybody got any documentation? > > Linux/MIPS FAQ have some information for ARC, but they say ARC is > not a right firmware, only it boots up NT. > Maybe ARC have no work for device detection. > > > Ideally we would get to the point where all the platform-specific fixup > > code etc was moved into the bootloaders, and then do away with the > > CHRP/PReP/whatever compile option. > > How cool it is! > > Best regards. > ---------------------- > Kaz Aoshima = Editor of the PReP station > Material deveropment, Faculty of engineering, > Tohoku University, Japan > E-mail:aoshimak@mail.cc.tohoku.ac.jp > #I would appreciate if you could give me suggestions > for my impolite English expressions. > -- Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - short SIGs! All I need to know I could have learned in Kindergarten ... if I'd just been paying attention. ** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/