> Wasn't there some talk of an init ramdisk that just contained kernel load
> modules? How about one that throws up a title screen in 320x200x256? The
> binary data for the image could be contained in the module itself and thus
> would disappear from core as soon as rmmod'ed. (This whole shenanigan could
> be skipped if AltGr were held down at boot...)
Besides consuming more disk space and slowing down booting (making
floppy boots impossible) I see no advantage of any graphical screen
when booting.
>
> (For that matter, wouldn't 640x400x256 work on all VGA cards, from 256k on
> up?)
>
> Speaking of AltGr, there should be some way to pass the shift state
> according to BIOS as of just before BIOS destruction to those procedures
> that require it (perhaps as a kernel global)? I'm sure init would like to
> hear about the shift state eventually as well...
What are you talking about? You can get the state of the shift key
from the kernel; no BIOS is needed.
Ulrich