Re: [i386 BOOT CODE] kernel bootable again

[Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>]

On 9/17/05, Giuseppe Bilotta <bilotta78@hotpop.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:42:12 +0200 (CEST), Pascal Bellard wrote:
> 
> > The bootblock code is 497 bytes long. It must as simple as possible.
> > Complex algorithms like fingerprinting can't be used.
> >
> > Geometry detection works with usual floppies. This patch goal is to
> > support them like < 2.6 bootblocks did and fix 1M limitation and
> > special formatting like 1.68M floppies.
> >
> > Geometry detection may work with non-traditional floppies but is not
> > designed to.
> 
> This is probably a stupid suggestion, but here it goes anyway: the
> kernel has to be written on disk by something, right?
> 
> So if the "something" knows (or can get to know) the sector/tracks
> layout of the disk it's writing the kernel onto, it could store this
> information in the bootblock (is there space for that?). The bootblock
> code would then just read this info and use it.
> 
> Of course, this would mean that making a kernel-bootable floppy
> wouldn't be as simple as cp'ing the kernel image to /dev/fdwhatever,
> but if a script/program designed to do this was included with the
> kernel source (it wouldn't be too big ...) ...
> 
I may be missing something here, but if you are going to do something
like that, then why not just use a real bootloader instead?

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