From owner-freebsd-current  Sat Mar 20  2: 1: 7 1999
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from freebsd.dk (freebsd.dk [212.242.42.178])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B970314CA8
	for <current@FreeBSD.ORG>; Sat, 20 Mar 1999 02:01:03 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from sos@freebsd.dk)
Received: (from sos@localhost)
	by freebsd.dk (8.9.1/8.9.1) id KAA35061;
	Sat, 20 Mar 1999 10:59:51 +0100 (CET)
	(envelope-from sos)
From: Søren Schmidt <sos@freebsd.dk>
Message-Id: <199903200959.KAA35061@freebsd.dk>
Subject: Re: How to add a new bootdevice to the new boot code ???
In-Reply-To: <199903200821.BAA21142@pluto.plutotech.com> from "Justin T. Gibbs" at "Mar 20, 1999  1:12:36 am"
To: gibbs@plutotech.com (Justin T. Gibbs)
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 10:59:51 +0100 (CET)
Cc: mike@smith.net.au, gibbs@plutotech.com, rnordier@nordier.com,
	current@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL43 (25)]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

It seems Justin T. Gibbs wrote:
> >> In article <199903171103.NAA13749@ceia.nordier.com> you wrote:
> >> > Søren Schmidt wrote:
> >> >  
> >> >> OK, easy enough, this is what I want to do:
> >> >> 
> >> >> Boot from an ata disk on major# 30, device name "ad", plain and simple.
> >> > 
> >> > I'd be inclined to handle this outside the boot code, by treating the
> >> > passed in major# as describing the device rather than specifying
> >> > the driver.
> >> 
> >> Why not have the boot blocks pass in a device 'name' rather than a
> >> major number.  If the goal is to ditch major numbers entirely with
> >> a properly working DEVFS, then using major numbers in the new boot
> >> loader seems to be the wrong way to go.  Until DEVFS is a reality,
> >> the kernel will still need to perform a name to major number translation,
> >> but it should be left up to the kernel.
> >
> >Because there's no way to work out a name either.
> 
> If I explicitly say:
> 
> 1:foobar(0,a)/kernel
> 
> there certainly is a way to work out the name.  Perhaps in the autoboot
> case you'll have to guess, but it would be nice if the current boot
> mechanism allowed user intervention as a way to boot a kernel with an
> unknown bdev.

YES!! can we please have that ??

-Søren


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message