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From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
To: Mikael Pettersson <mikpe@it.uu.se>
Cc: LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, x86@kernel.org
Subject: Re: RFC: running out of x86 boot loader IDs
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:38:18 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <49824BFA.3000203@zytor.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <18818.19160.962399.20413@harpo.it.uu.se>

Mikael Pettersson wrote:
> Why do we need a boot loader id at all? The purpose of a boot loader,
> whatever it may be, is to load the kernel according to certain protocols.
> Once that's done, why would the kernel care who/what loaded it?

A couple of reasons...

a) Bugs happen.  Sometimes bugs are latent, and we later find ourselves
    in an unenviable position of not being able to work around a problem
    unless we know that we were loaded by <loader X> with <problem Y>.
b) Distro installers or other distro components sometimes find this
    useful.

	-hpa

  reply	other threads:[~2009-01-30  0:38 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2009-01-29 23:06 RFC: running out of x86 boot loader IDs H. Peter Anvin
2009-01-29 23:16 ` Ingo Molnar
2009-01-29 23:19   ` H. Peter Anvin
2009-01-30  0:33 ` Mikael Pettersson
2009-01-30  0:38   ` H. Peter Anvin [this message]
2009-05-08  0:18 ` [tip:x86/kbuild-phys] x86: add extension fields for bootloader type and version tip-bot for H. Peter Anvin

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