Re: Loading Linux from Linux - opinions

From: almesber@lrc.di.epfl.ch
Date: Mon Mar 20 2000 - 07:36:29 EST


Evan Langlois wrote:
> Whats the status of the "Loading Linux from Linux" patch?

bootimg status:
 - basic design and implementation basically done, except for the
   spurious interrupts problem and some more minor cleanup
 - next step is to split bootimg(2) to allow attaching it to
   panic and friends to allow fallback reboots and, with some
   additional code, reasonably safe crash dumps. I'm working with
   the guys from missioncriticallinux on this.
 - in user space, all the "generic" code in bootimg(8) has to go
   into bootimg(3)
 - with bootimg(3), I can write a little boot shell that combines
   the idea of ush and busybox. Then I can make the initrd creation
   scripts that prove my claim that initrd is not the oh so terrible
   waste of space many people seem to think it is.

I've been busy with other things in the past few days, so there isn't
much progress. I expect to return to hacking on bootimg this week.

> What is the chance of a patch like this making it into a stable release?

I've asked Linus whether he though I should try to get bootimg ready for
2.4, and he didn't respond. So it seems such things are not too high on
his priority list ...

> [ description of many reasons why booting Linux from Linux is a good
> idea ]

Yep, you got it ;-) Another goodie is booting from devices the BIOS
doesn't know about, although they're not so exotic by themselves,
e.g. disk > 32 GB with an old Award BIOS. I'm the lucky owner of such
a combination and it will be an excellent test case for bootimg ;-)

- Werner

-- 
  _________________________________________________________________________
 / Werner Almesberger, ICA, EPFL, CH       werner.almesberger@ica.epfl.ch /
/_IN_N_032__Tel_+41_21_693_6621__Fax_+41_21_693_6610_____________________/

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