[LinuxBIOS] State of the buildrom

[Jordan Crouse]

We've been doing a lot of hacking on buildrom lately.  Thanks to everybody,
especially Ward and Myles.  I wanted to take some time to discuss where
we are and particularly where we want to go.

Here is where we are:

* v2 support for 10 platforms (alix1c, db800, dbe61, ga-2761gxdk, m57sli, 
  msm800sev, norwich, serengeti_cheetah, tyan-s2882 and tyan-s2891).

* 5 payloads supported (etherboot, filo, kernel, LAB, memtest).  Also,
  you can plug in a custom ELF if you see fit.

Thats fun, but its more interesting to talk about what we still have left
to do:

* v3 support:  This is probably the most useful extension we can do in the
near term - not only does it serve our v3 hackers, but it also will force
us to review some of the buildrom internals (in particular, I am worried
about the state of the packages/linuxbios directory).

* OFW:  We need to return OFW to working.

* gPXE:  Ward is taking the lead on this

* grub2:  Another payload we desperately need to get into buildrom - any
volunteers?

* New platforms:  New platforms always seem to introduce new wrinkles that
we haven't thought about.  In particular, the VIA platforms are pretty
popular, so it would be nice to get support for them.

* buildroot/firmware_linux/etc:  I'm still interested in partnering with
other build systems in an effort to better scale support for LAB 
payloads.

* Optimizations:  There are always things we can do to clean up - add -j N
support for make, reduce memory usage, avoid stupid gmake tricks and the
like.  I think things are stable enough in the core that we can start to
twist some knobs without blowing everything up.

What does everybody else think?  What have I missed?

Jordan
-- 
Jordan Crouse
Systems Software Development Engineer 
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.