public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
To: Frank Sorenson <frank@tuxrocks.com>
Cc: pascal.bellard@ads-lu.com, Riley@Williams.Name,
	Linux-Kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [i386 BOOT CODE] kernel bootable again
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 12:42:21 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <43272B9D.1030301@zytor.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <432722A1.8030302@tuxrocks.com>

Frank Sorenson wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Pascal Bellard wrote:
> 
>>Hello,
>>
>>Please find attached a patch to build i386/x86_64 kernel directly
>>bootable. It may be usefull for rescue floppies and installation
>>floppies.
> 
> 
> Pascal,
> 
> In commit f8eeaaf4180334a8e5c3582fe62a5f8176a8c124, build.c has already
> changed, and I don't believe it's very compatible with this change.
> 
> See
> http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=f8eeaaf4180334a8e5c3582fe62a5f8176a8c124
> 
> Also, we'll need to see comments from H. Peter Anvin on this patch.
> CC'ing him.
> 

Geometry detection by looking for error returns is fundamentally broken. 
  Way too many non-traditional floppies (USB, IDE...) do not handle this 
at all, they will return successfully, with the data being the data from 
a sector from another track, and thus you end up with aliasing and a 
corrupt boot.  You can do it with fingerprinting, but that's complex and 
error-prone.

In short, this made sense in 1991, but it hasn't made sense for a very 
long time now.  Resurrecting bootsect.S is *NOT* a good idea.

	-hpa

  reply	other threads:[~2005-09-13 19:42 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2005-09-13 13:46 [i386 BOOT CODE] kernel bootable again Pascal Bellard
2005-09-13 19:04 ` Frank Sorenson
2005-09-13 19:42   ` H. Peter Anvin [this message]
2005-09-14  9:42     ` Pascal Bellard
2005-09-14  9:55       ` Martin Mares
2005-09-14 16:38       ` H. Peter Anvin
2005-09-17 15:26       ` Giuseppe Bilotta
2005-09-17 15:56         ` Jesper Juhl
2005-09-17 16:19           ` Giuseppe Bilotta
2005-09-19  2:13             ` Coywolf Qi Hunt
2005-09-14  9:52   ` Pascal Bellard
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2005-09-20 17:13 Etienne Lorrain

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=43272B9D.1030301@zytor.com \
    --to=hpa@zytor.com \
    --cc=Linux-Kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=Riley@Williams.Name \
    --cc=frank@tuxrocks.com \
    --cc=pascal.bellard@ads-lu.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox