[PROPOSAL] extended payload handling

[Frank]

You missed the point!
If I wanted a bootloader for the PPC I would use u-boot and
that's what I did. But if I wanted a bootloader for the X86
platform I would have liked to use LinuxBios. U-BOOT is
synonymous with the PPC. LinuxBios should be synonymous with the
X86 just like PMON is with the MIPS platform. Take a long look
at u-boot and you'll find support for just about every PPC  and
the number of drivers are abundant. I can port u-boot to a new
PPC based board in about 3 days tops. There is no way I can port
LinuxBios to a new X86 based board in that amount of time. You
should focus your efforts on improving LinuxBios for the X86 and
not waste time trying to make it work for the PPC. If I wanted a
bootloader I would use u-boot not LinuxBios. I have heard of
other people abandoning LinuxBios and going to u-boot in that
past, just like I did...
--- "Hendricks David W." <dwh at lanl.gov> wrote:
> IIRC, that's what Greg's addition of FILO for PPC was all
> about.
> 
> On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, Frank wrote:
> 
> > Finally, someone has recognized the lack of support with
> > LinuxBios. About 6 months ago we decide to do an x86 based
> > project but abandoned it because of the lack of support for
> this
> > bootloader. The code is disorganized and in disarray as far
> as
> > I'm concerend. We were on a tight schedule and didn't have
> the
> > luxury of spending a lot of time trying to understand the
> code
> > layout. This was due in part to the lack of badly needed
> > documentation and code organization. We decided to base our
> > design on a powerpc and go with u-boot.
> > Hopefully by the time we decide to do cost reduced version,
> > LinuxBios will be usable for the masses and not just for an
> > elite group of people who assume everybody else uses the x86
> for
> > everyday use.:-(
> > 
> > --- Greg Watson <gwatson at lanl.gov> wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Jun 8, 2004, at 7:59 AM, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > > 
> > > > * Greg Watson <gwatson at lanl.gov> [040608 15:22]:
> > > >> I think this is a reasonable idea, particularly your
> > > suggestion of
> > > >> making linuxbios more modular. One of my main beefs
> with
> > > the payload
> > > >> strategy is that each payload has to provide it's own
> set
> > > of,
> > > >> potentially buggy, driver code. If we have 5 payloads
> then
> > > we have 5
> > > >> sets of drivers that all do the same thing slightly
> > > differently. If 
> > > >> the
> > > >> drivers were modular enough so that a payload could
> call
> > > them 
> > > >> directly,
> > > >> then this would go a long way to addressing these
> concerns.
> > > >
> > > > As far as I can tell the only drivers involved would be
> > > output drivers,
> > > > ie. video output and serial output. There the extensible
> > > LinuxBIOS 
> > > > table
> > > > could come into play. The video driver could store a
> pointer
> > > to the
> > > > framebuffer, the resolution and maybe even a font, to
> save
> > > duplicates.
> > > > Serial is only a kilobyte or so of a driver i think.
> > > >
> > > > Have I forgotten something?
> > > >
> > > 
> > > PCI device code and resource information should be
> available
> > > for 
> > > payloads to use. A payload should not have to re-probe for
> > > devices on 
> > > the PCI bus.
> > > 
> > > Greg
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Linuxbios mailing list
> > > Linuxbios at clustermatic.org
> > > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
> > 
> > 
> > 	
> > 		
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> 
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