Video initialization, and bootloaders...

[Eric W. Biederman]

ron minnich <rminnich at lanl.gov> writes:

> On 8 Mar 2004, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> 
> > An important thing to verify here is that the standard cpu
> > identification steps will show the emulated cpu to be a 386 or whatever
> > minimal processor we support.  And we should tightly restrict the
> > emulated codes access to memory, presenting it with a virtual not a real
> > view of what is going on.  Keeping the code chained as much as possible.
> 
> That is pretty much what we are doing now. We will be plugging the 
> emulator into linuxbios, Ollie is working out the design. 

Right.
 
> > I think the simplest path to a flexible LinuxBIOS solution is to have a
> > native LinuxBIOS loader like etherboot, the Linux kernel or possibly
> > something much simpler act as a switch between the different
> > personalities we can wear, PCBIOS openfirmware, efi, arc, etc.  And we
> > will boot with whichever one the user selects.
> 
> I'm currenly liking FILO or the linux kernel the best. 

The Linux kernel is my favored candidate as a general purpose bootloader.
FILO has it's uses especially for interactive use.  FILO at least at
the moment is not targeted at the behind the scenes long term stable
interfaces that let a bootloader fade into the background and be forgotten.

If we are going to have a native LinuxBIOS personality this is something
we need to consider agree to and write up.

> > Using a bootloader as a switch to select among the others is the only
> > easy way I can see to have my cake and it too with supporting multiple
> > personalities.  You get only one at a time but I think that is easier to
> > verify.
> 
> we'll see how it goes...

Yes.

Eric