[U-Boot] [PATCH 3/4] config_distro_bootcmd: Scan all partitions for boot files

Dennis Gilmore
2015-01-10T18:34:21Z

On Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:46:20 +0100
Sjoerd Simons <sjoerd.simons@collabora.co.uk> wrote:

>
> > > This is about the default setup though, it would be really nice
> > > to get consistent behaviour. I would be inclined to say that the
> > > defaults should conservatively try the internal/main storage
> > > first (assuming there will be an OS is installed there) and only
> > > fallback to other options later.
> >
> > I'm inclined the other way, which is to boot of a removable media
> > first if someone has gone to the effort to plug one in. People
> > building kiosks etc who want to lock it down to internal only can
> > still do so.
>
> This is the general problem of the user doing an action but the system
> really being unable to devine the intention behind that action.. An
> external storage device can have been plugged in for a lot of reasons,
> not just to boot from (you might have wnated to copy/inspect/change
> some data on the card). I would argue that the main reason for folks
> to plug in external storage devices into computers is not because
> they'd like to boot from it and furthermore that a lot of people
> would be confused if leaving in a storage card/stick makes the system
> unbootable.
>
> I suspect this argument comes down to how you expect users to normally
> use the system.. Iotw as a general computing device, just like your
> laptop or desktop machine or as a development toy where you regularly
> boot from external media (I would expect the former, but that's just
> me).

Well the intention here is for general computing devices. Where when
you get a machine you would pxe install or boot from a install image
provided by the os vendor. I think we should follow how x86 works and
default to external media first, then internal media followed by
network. All with the user being able to override the settings either
permanently or in a one off fashion.

Dennis