From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754041AbXEACSU (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:18:20 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754047AbXEACSU (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:18:20 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([192.83.249.54]:54344 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754041AbXEACST (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:18:19 -0400 Message-ID: <4636A332.2070101@zytor.com> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:17:22 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070419) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dave Jones , "H. Peter Anvin" , linux-kernel , "Eric W. Biederman" , Andi Kleen , Jeff Garzik , Jeremy Fitzhardinge , Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: arch/i386/boot rewrite, and all the hard-coded video cards References: <463698D5.20102@zytor.com> <20070501015115.GJ26601@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <20070501015115.GJ26601@redhat.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Dave Jones wrote: > > I don't really care, but I wonder what the point is of rewriting something > that hardly ever gets notably changed, and is rarely (if ever?) a source > of bugs. It might be crufty old assembly, but it's worked well for years. > Well, it hardly gets notably changed because it is a nightmare to get it right, and when it is changed, it is likely to be a bug magnet. The sheer number of bugs I have found in the process of figuring out what the current code is doing is pretty much evidence of that. I'm surprised fewer bugs are actually manifest, but I guess that shows how little of the code is actually used. The "solution" that people have been employing has been to require the use of special bootloaders for different environments, which enter at code32_start instead. Hardly an improvement. -hpa