Re: THE LINUX/I386 BOOT PROTOCOL - Breaking the 256 limit

Alon Bar-Lev
2005-09-06T20:53:10Z

Thank you for the reply,

H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Alon Bar-Lev wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello Peter, I've written a reply before but got no response...
>>
>> The idea of putting arguments in initramfs is not practical, since the
>> whole idea is to have the same image of system and affecting its
>> behavior using the boot loader...
>>
>
> No, you're wrong. The boot loader can synthesize an initramfs.

Hmm... Isn't it somewhat big change for them?
Do you mean that they can add a text file at root containing
the command-line?
It is not so good... Since currently many scripts looks at
/proc/cmdline and get the arguments they are interested in...
The initramfs will not allow this... And there is no access to
initramfs files after control is passed to root, since most
distributions erase its contents in order to free memory...

>
> Already pushed to Andrew. I will follow it up with a patch to extend
> the command line, at least to 512.

Thanks!!!
But why not making it a configuration option?
For example, I think it should be at least 1024...

Will this patch update the document?
If it does please don't specify maximum size,
The boot loader should be instructed to put unlimited
string... OK... there is no thing like unlimited, so max 16K :)

Only the kernel should truncate it to the right size.

Best Regards,
Alon Bar-Lev.