From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jun 19 15: 6: 2 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from peach.ocn.ne.jp (peach.ocn.ne.jp [210.145.254.87]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A2CF237B682 for ; Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:05:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dcs@newsguy.com) Received: from newsguy.com (p21-dn01kiryunisiki.gunma.ocn.ne.jp [211.0.245.22]) by peach.ocn.ne.jp (8.9.1a/OCN/) with ESMTP id HAA28144; Tue, 20 Jun 2000 07:05:41 +0900 (JST) Message-ID: <394E996C.EF72B68F@newsguy.com> Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 07:06:36 +0900 From: "Daniel C. Sobral" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en,pt-BR,ja MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Parag Patel Cc: Ronald G Minnich , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: freebsd bios. References: <45138.961391076@pinhead.parag.codegen.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Parag Patel wrote: > > It can't, without shitloads of drivers. :) > > ("I asked you not to tell me that, Ninety-Nine!") > > A new loader would need to be written that would have a way to talk to > whatever firmware is in the box, Open Firmware, LinuxBIOS, etc. > (Assuming that the firmware has a proper call-back API, like IEEE-1275.) > > Otherwise the loader will be about as complicated as the kernel itself. > So it may as well *be* the kernel and use the same drivers. But then it > stills needs a way to bootstrap it from ROM. > > Which is why the LinuxBIOS folks are trying to use Linux as the BIOS. :) And, in the process, they are teaching the firmware about Ext2FS, Ext3FS, RheiserFS, (in our case) ffs, vinum, etc, so it can find the kernel in whatever place it is, or resorting to some sort of bootfs (though any software RAID would still have to be taught), with it's inherent disadvantages? If what you describe is accurate... imho, that's the diametrical oppositve of the right way. -- Daniel C. Sobral (8-DCS) dcs@newsguy.com dcs@freebsd.org capo@the.great.underground.bsdconpiracy.org "He is my minion, so he doesn't need a name." To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message