Re: why I don't like initrd (was Re: Linux-2.1.92 - Feature Freeze)

James H Cloos Jr (cloos@jhcloos.com)
04 Apr 1998 18:06:04 -0600

One solution to bypass the need for initrd would be to port MILO to
intel. One could use an MBR loader like LILO -- as per ARC on the
alpha -- to load the milo image, which would then go into protected
mode and give you your prompt. It could have all the nasty code for
init'ing PnP hardware, and could pass that info to the kernel image it
loads.

Among the other benefits, the kernel's size and location would not be
BIOS limited, you could boot a simple vmlinux or vmlinux.gz file.

I'd be surprised if no one has made any effort in making such a port....

Of course, replacing the BIOS w/ somethigng like SRM or Sun's
FORTH-based util (I forget what it is called) would be even more
fun.....

-JimC

-- 
James H. Cloos, Jr.
cloos@jhcloos.com




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