Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 07:53:10 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au>, Studded <Studded@gorean.org> Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Edwin Culp <eculp@webwizard.org.mx>, FreeBSD-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: ELF kernels (was: Make elf release) Message-ID: <19981014075310.V21983@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199810130909.RAA29552@spinner.netplex.com.au>; from Peter Wemm on Tue, Oct 13, 1998 at 05:09:30PM %2B0800 References: <3622D416.E2E627AC@gorean.org> <199810130909.RAA29552@spinner.netplex.com.au>
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On Tuesday, 13 October 1998 at 17:09:30 +0800, Peter Wemm wrote: > Studded wrote: >> Mike Smith wrote: >> >>> There's some (understandable) resistance to putting an ELF kernel in >>> 3.0, so the changeover will probably happen a few weeks afterwards. At >>> that stage we'll shift to the new bootloader as well. >> >> I still think getting the pain over now is a good idea. Leaving a major >> change for after the "release" will just postpone by one more quarter >> the time when 3.0 has a chance of being stable. > > Unfortunately, I agree, in part at least. The biggest difficulty in doing > a changeover is upgrading the stage2 bootblocks. If we get the 3.0 CD > installing ELF-capable bootblocks (even if it's a hacked biosboot), then > it's going to make the transition *so* much easier. It's not a question > of flipping a switch, we've got to get the bootblocks upgraded. If we > could get the 3.0 release sysinstall to do this for us it would be a big > win. > > Ideally there should be a choice in sysinstall, and sysinstall could > change them on the fly. If somebody installed a system and the new > bootblocks didn't work, it'd be nice if it was as simple as booting the > floppy and downgrading to the older system. > > IMHO, whether /kernel is a.out or elf is far less of an issue than which > bootblocks we use. I'm not sure whether you're talking about the same issue that Doug (Studded) is. I think moving to an ELF kernel 2 days before code freeze would be a disaster. It would certainly reduce functionality by the number of LKMs which haven't been converted to KLDs, and would presumably add opportunities for bugs in that area. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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