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Date:      Wed, 6 Mar 2013 17:09:04 -0700
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Aleksandr Rybalko <ray@freebsd.org>
Cc:        freebsd-arm@freebsd.org, Ian Lepore <ian@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: GENERIC kernel issues
Message-ID:  <E04A8591-CAF1-41D2-9DE5-5FBB095E8BDB@bsdimp.com>
In-Reply-To: <20130307014021.3c02fdb4.ray@freebsd.org>
References:  <DF7B73D4-BE50-4E75-8D5B-FE19A4764F31@freebsd.org> <1362445777.1195.299.camel@revolution.hippie.lan> <3DFABC9A-876A-4F34-9E15-E4C630D7B077@bsdimp.com> <1362542286.1291.94.camel@revolution.hippie.lan> <4CF23AFE-DD69-40AA-ACFB-46F055F0AA3F@bsdimp.com> <1362594744.1291.132.camel@revolution.hippie.lan> <DDB2A45D-33E4-4612-A17B-62F57EBCDFD0@bsdimp.com> <20130306234004.bf113967.ray@freebsd.org> <4C0099FA-BBBE-4F93-8C97-CE5B79465829@bsdimp.com> <20130307005649.35a6b9ae.ray@freebsd.org> <CAJ-VmokWKcogM%2BJFWn%2B%2Brw6kn85xw-5wGeiV2yiS9upidXBvSA@mail.gmail.com> <20130307014021.3c02fdb4.ray@freebsd.org>

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On Mar 6, 2013, at 4:40 PM, Aleksandr Rybalko wrote:

> On Wed, 6 Mar 2013 15:16:02 -0800
> Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org> wrote:
>=20
>> Peeps,
>>=20
>> If you make the boot process too complicated and it stops being "load
>> kernel via flash/NFS, boot" then people may just not bother. :-)
>>=20
>> I know you're going for correctness and we're hampered by how "linux
>> does things', but I really do suggest that you first get working,
>> packaged, easily installed and updated systems using what we =
currently
>> heave before you try to make a 'much nicer but noone ever uses it'
>> solution.
>>=20
>> Please don't fall down the trap of "over-engineering correctness that
>> noone will ever use." that software people do when they don't have
>> deliverables.
>>=20
>> 2c,
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>> Adrian
>=20
> Adrian,=20
>=20
> I hope you don't compile special kernel before first boot on
> every new laptop/desktop/server? :)))
>=20
> We want also find such drugs for so mach fancy ARM world, so anybody
> will have a way to boot board with one of few install images, but not
> one per board.

We're also not talking about making it too complicated, but rather the =
reverse: how can we create fewer binary images. Since Linux is king in =
the embedded world, it seems self obvious that having our kernels be =
compatible with that will give us the least head wind. Having attempted =
to do something "right" without considering the prevailing environment =
before, I'd say that we will be miles ahead doing this in a sane way =
first, rather than kludging something together that kinda works on two =
boards. Today a single linux arm kernel will boot on hundreds if not =
thousands of different boards. We should learn from that experience =
rather than coming up with something that's NIH, but gets "something" =
done fast.

So far we haven't been hampered by taking this route, apart from some =
churn in email and the odd issue here and there. Ian has been hitting it =
out of the park, and none of the issues we've seen so far are show =
stoppers, especially if we go to a static PIC ubldr to increase the =
number of systems we can load on...  Then what we do with the elf =
headers suddenly doesn't matter at all. Or at least not as much...

Warner=



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