From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 11 Nov 2000 15:18:49 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 11 Nov 2000 15:18:29 -0500 Received: from slc602.modem.xmission.com ([166.70.7.94]:24071 "EHLO flinx.biederman.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 11 Nov 2000 15:18:25 -0500 To: Wakko Warner Cc: "Eric W. Biederman" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Q: Linux rebooting directly into linux. In-Reply-To: <20001109113524.C14133@animx.eu.org> From: ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) Date: 11 Nov 2000 13:05:18 -0700 In-Reply-To: Wakko Warner's message of "Thu, 9 Nov 2000 11:35:24 -0500" Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.0803 (Gnus v5.8.3) Emacs/20.5 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Wakko Warner writes: > > I have recently developed a patch that allows linux to directly boot > > into another linux kernel. With the code freeze it appears > > inappropriate to submit it at this time. > > > > Linus in principal do you have any trouble with this kind of > > functionality? > > > > The immediate applications of this code, are: > > - Clusters can network can network boot over arbitrary network > > interfaces, and the network driver only needs to be written and > > maintained in one place. > > - Multiplatform boot loaders can be written. > > - The Linux kernel can be included in a boot ROM and you can still > > boot other linux kernels. > > - Kernel developers can have a fast interface for booting into a > > development kernel. > > > > The interface is designed to be simple and inflexible yet very > > powerful. To that end the code just takes an elf binary, and a > > command line. The started image also takes an environment generated > > by the kernel of all of the unprobeable hardware details. > > Isn't this what milo does on alpha? Similar milo uses kernel drivers in it's own framework. This has proved to be a major maintenance problem. Milo is nearly a kernel fork. The design is for the long term to get this incorporated into the kernel, and even if not a small kernel patch should be easier to maintain that a harness for calling kernel drivers. Eric - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/