Re: Q: Linux rebooting directly into linux.

Eric W. Biederman
2000-11-11T20:18:49Z

Wakko Warner <wakko@animx.eu.org> writes:

> > I have recently developed a patch that allows linux to directly boot
> > into another linux kernel. With the code freeze it appears
> > inappropriate to submit it at this time.
> >
> > Linus in principal do you have any trouble with this kind of
> > functionality?
> >
> > The immediate applications of this code, are:
> > - Clusters can network can network boot over arbitrary network
> > interfaces, and the network driver only needs to be written and
> > maintained in one place.
> > - Multiplatform boot loaders can be written.
> > - The Linux kernel can be included in a boot ROM and you can still
> > boot other linux kernels.
> > - Kernel developers can have a fast interface for booting into a
> > development kernel.
> >
> > The interface is designed to be simple and inflexible yet very
> > powerful. To that end the code just takes an elf binary, and a
> > command line. The started image also takes an environment generated
> > by the kernel of all of the unprobeable hardware details.
>
> Isn't this what milo does on alpha?

Similar milo uses kernel drivers in it's own framework.
This has proved to be a major maintenance problem. Milo is nearly
a kernel fork.

The design is for the long term to get this incorporated into the
kernel, and even if not a small kernel patch should be easier to
maintain that a harness for calling kernel drivers.