On 7 Feb, Ronald G Minnich wrote:
> On 7 Feb 2001, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>
>> To actually have integration it looks like we are going to have
>> to introduce some kind of arch directory. There are just
>> so many header files that change when you switch to a 64 bit
>> architecture.
>
> not a problem.
>
>
>> Then all linuxBIOS
>> becomes is linuxbiosmain.c and it's supporting functions.
>
> sounds good.
>
>> A second point. Currently we hardcode the location of the kernel
>> image and where it should be uncompressed in memory into linuxbios.
>> What I would like to do unless someone has an objection is:
>> (a) Implement my kexec interface for starting a kernel from linuxBIOS.
> ok
Could you give a very brief description of the kexec "api"? I'm
currious about how it is different and/or better than the current
system.
>> (b) move the responsibility of decompression into the kernel image
>> itself. This can still be used by the BSD's if they choose to.
>
> if you think that's the best thing to do.
On 7 Feb, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> I think so. The lazy reason is that it is a pain to extra an ELF
> header from a gzipped image.
>
> The reason inspired by lazyness are
> (a) We need something like this for transfering these kernels over the
> network anyway. At least I need to and I'm aiming having one
> set of tools to do the work.
> (b) This should keep the linuxBIOS code simple while allowing us
> to change to a different compression algorithm if we feel like it.
I take it that you are wanting to use and ELF image and our current
system doesn't? What is the advantage of an ELF image? Is it more
porable or something like that?
>> (c) Implement a search algorithm in the rom where we look for a
>> ELF header to find the kernel. Instead of hardcoding its
>> location into ROM.
I need to be able to boot either of at least 2 images from a paged
flash chip. Wouldn't a search algorithm work against me?
Ty
--
Tyson D Sawyer iRobot Corporation
Senior Systems Engineer Real World Interface Div.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Robots for the Real World
603-532-6900 ext 206 http://www.irobot.com
