Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 10:31:17 +0100 (CET) From: Andrzej Bialecki <abial@nask.pl> To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Probing devices in bootloader Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9811161011260.28991-100000@korin.warman.org.pl>
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Hi all, I have a (possibly) interesting idea, and I'd like to share it with you. With the advent of the new booloader, I think it's possible now to do device probing from inside the bootloader. Let's suppose that each kernel module would have a special initialization section, which could be used in BTX environment. After all, most probing is just checking for the presence of some signatures at given locations, and this can easily be done in BTX environment, right? Then, once the device has been successfuly probed, we could discard this section when loading it. This special init section would be probably of no use when running normal system, so that a kernel module would contain two of them - one for the normal operation, and one for the initial BTX enviroment. What this would buy us? IMHO, ability to check very early what devices are present, and to load appropriate modules only for them. It could be possible to build quite sophisticated multi-variant scenarios with alternative configurations based on the results of probing. It could also help to avoid memory fragmentation when loading/unloading modules, etc, etc.. Now what\s your opinion on this? Especially those of you who nkow the workings of BTX, kernel modules, and the booting process much better than I do... :-) Andrzej Bialecki -------------------- ++-------++ ------------------------------------- <abial@nask.pl> ||PicoBSD|| FreeBSD in your pocket? Go and see: Research & Academic |+-------+| "Small & Embedded FreeBSD" Network in Poland | |TT~~~| | http://www.freebsd.org/~picobsd/ -------------------- ~-+==---+-+ ------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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