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Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:32:57 +0000
From: Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk>
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Subject: Re: amd64 native boot loader?
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snowcrash+freebsd wrote:
> hi,
>
> i've FBSD/amd64 62Rp9 installed.  kernel & world are my own builds
> from latest cvsup.
>
> on boot I see:
>
>     "FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader"
>
> odd.  i'd expect a native loader ...
>
> checking in,
>
>   /usr/src/sys/boot  > ls
>     Makefile  alpha/    arm/      efi/      forth/    ia64/     pc98/
>    sparc64/
>     README    arc/      common/   ficl/     i386/     ofw/      powerpc/
>
> other arches seem to be there ... just not amd64.
>
> where's the src for the amd64?
>
>   

AMD64 CPUs are backwards compatible with i386; they boot in 16-bit real 
mode and only get switched into 64-bit 'long mode' by the kernel later 
on. Since both i386 and amd64 start booting in the same way, there's no 
need for separate bootloaders.

--
Bruce