Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:05:58 +0100 From: Gary Jennejohn <garyj@jennejohn.org> To: "Aditya Godbole" <aag.lists@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ramdisk support Message-ID: <200611161805.kAGI5w9b013112@peedub.jennejohn.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:06:41 %2B0530." <2f3a439f0611160836r3c88c3f4ja9cc5a5f4b78a244@mail.gmail.com>
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"Aditya Godbole" writes: > On 11/16/06, Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de> wrote: > > > > I see. Is it PXE-compliant? If so, you can use FreeBSD's > > PXE bootloader (/boot/pxeboot) for loading the kernel. In > > that case you can also load the root FS image as a separate > > file, so there is no need to hack it into the kernel binary. > > > > u-boot is not PXE compliant. I have never come across anyone trying to > use it to boot FreeBSD before. Unfortunately, that is the only > bootloader that I know of that works on the architecture I'm working > on. > > > As far as I know, there is no official support for loading > > a FreeBSD kernel directly, without using the FreeBSD boot > > loader. > > > > Yes. However for putting FreeBSD on embedded systems, I have to make > tweaks to allow it to boot using other bootloaders. I'm working on > putting FreeBSD on the MPC8555 e500-PPC based board, which is not > supported at all. > u-boot is unfortuately extremely Linux-centric. I work closely with the person who "invented" u-boot, Wolfgang Denk, and know that he'd just love to see the *BSD support improved. Unfortunately, u-boot makes heavy use of Linux' support for rootdev, etc., which AFAIK is missing in FreeBSD. It heavily depends on passing lots of necessary information in the Linux command line to influence the boot process. BTW do you have any patches which you could contribute, or have you already done that? --- Gary Jennejohn / garyjATjennejohnDOTorg gjATfreebsdDOTorg garyjATdenxDOTde
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