From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Mar  9  9:25:41 2000
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Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 09:08:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Jim Shankland <jas@flyingfox.com>
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To: bsdknowledgeseeker@hotmail.com, K.J.Koster@kpn.com
Subject: RE: freeBSD booting src info
Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <59063B5B4D98D311BC0D0001FA7E45220131396D@l04.research.kpn.com>
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"'BSDknowledge seeker'" <bsdknowledgeseeker@hotmail.com> asks:

> Is there a document available which explains the freeBSD's
> booting sequence - ie. the place where the kernel is mapped,
> initialisation of the page tables, segment descriptors and so
> on.  If the relevant files are also mentioned, all the better.

And "Koster, K.J." <K.J.Koster@kpn.com> responds:

> http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/internals.html

Since I'm digging into this now also, let me point out that
the above reference is a bit ... prolix.  It does *not* address
the specific issues bsdknowledgeseeker asked about:  the place
where the kernel is mapped, initialization of page tables,
etc.  For example, here is the entirety of what the above
document has to say about boot2:

	boot2 is slightly more sophisticated, and understands
	the FreeBSD filesystem enough to find files on it, and
	can provide a simple interface to choose the kernel or
	loader to run.

	Since the loader is much more sophisticated, and
	provides a nice easy-to-use boot configuration, boot2
	usually runs it, but previously it was tasked to run
	the kernel directly.

If there is more detailed documentation somewhere, I'd be happy
to receive a pointer to it.  For now, I'm in UTSL mode.  If I
survive that, maybe I'll write something up.  Was mich nicht
umbringt, macht mich staerker :-).

Jim Shankland
NLynx Systems, Inc.


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