Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 21:16:38 +0900 From: "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com> To: Chris Stenton <jacs@gnome.co.uk> Cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG, John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org>, Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Subject: Re: loader config and the new buildkernel Message-ID: <396C61A6.15885473@newsguy.com> References: <200007120908.KAA01654@hawk.gnome.co.uk>
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Chris Stenton wrote: > > Ok I've moved over to the new regime and used > > make buildkernel KERNEL=GNOME > make installkernel KERNEL=GNOME > > I've created > > /boot/loader.conf > > with options > > kernel="/GNOME" > bootfile="GNOME" > > What exactly does bootfile do other than put text in the square brackets > in the boot up text ie > Booting[GNOME] in ... > > if I leave bootfile option out I get > Booting[kernel] in ... > > but it boots the right kernel. Should I be editing any other options? Mmmmm... I was sure this had been fixed on -current, and it ought to have been merged to stable... Lemme check... Ok, I know wazzup. The variable bootfile is a list of names of possible kernels to boot. The present code is wrong in that it uses the first name of that list in all cases, and it's even more wrong in that it doesn't even check to see if a kernel is already loaded. See loader(8) on bootfile. OTOH, the variable "kernel" is used exclusively by loader.4th(8), the program which reads loader.conf(5). It indicates the name of the kernel to be loaded. So what happens is that loader.4th(8) loads a kernel indicated by the variable kernel and then calls autoboot, and autoboot completely ignores the fact that a kernel has already been loaded. You see, autoboot was designed to be called before any kernel was loaded, not after. So it's messages refer to the kernel it would _try_ to load at boot, if one wasn't already loaded. Notes to self: * Redesign loader.4th(8) to use bootfile value, and comment out the kernel variable in defaults/loader.conf. * Redesign loader.4th(8) to accept multiple kernel names in the variable "kernel". I'll leave the fixing of autoboot to someone else, though... -- Daniel C. Sobral (8-DCS) dcs@newsguy.com dcs@freebsd.org capo@the.great.underground.bsdconpiracy.org <jkh> _DES: The Book of Bruce has only one sentence in it, and it says "the actual directives of my cult are left as an exercise for the reader. Good luck." <EE> jkh: does it really include the 'good luck' part? <jkh> EE: OK, I made that part up. <jkh> EE: I figured it should sound a bit more cheery than how Bruce initially dictated it to me. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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