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

Jesper Juhl
2005-08-31T22:12:06Z

On 9/1/05, Chris Wedgwood <cw@f00f.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2005 at 03:01:57PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
> > Maybe not. Another option would simply be to bump it up
> > significantly (2x isn't really that much.) 4096, maybe.
>
> I wonder if we're not at the point where we need something different
> to what we have now. The concept of a command-line works for passing
> simple state but for more complex things it's too cumbersome.

How about

a) bump the limit on the cmd line - it's still useful, and 256 really
is quite small for some things.

b) add a new boot option telling the kernel the name of some file in
initrd or similar from which to load additional options.

I don't know if b is feasible at all. It would mean that the kernel
would need to get a hold of the initrd or whatever quite early to be
able to process options from it, but if it's doable somehow it would
be a really neat thing.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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