Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 19:14:49 +0000 (GMT) From: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> To: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> Cc: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@kdm.org>, <ia64@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Porting the loader Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.33.0103071913520.30562-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> In-Reply-To: <200103071826.f27IQCr01113@mass.dis.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Mike Smith wrote: > > On Tue, 6 Mar 2001, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Any idea whether FreeBSD will have to use the same scheme of having a DOS > > > > partition in order to run the loader? > > > > > > You have to have a FAT partition; that's required by EFI. My initial > > > proposal was to have a boot2 equivalent living there, so that the loader > > > itself was still in the UFS filesystem. > > > > One interesting possibility would be to write an EFI driver for the UFS > > filesystem. This interface could automatically be added to any suitably > > typed partitions found by the firmware and would make it possible for the > > firmware to load files right out of the booting filesystem. > > I considered this as well. In the end, I don't remember why I thought it > would be easier just to write a 'boot2' replacement - I think it had to > do with not wanting to either a) convert the loader to an executable > format that EFI understood or b) write an exec format handler (which I'm > not sure that EFI lets you do). > > > One would still need a FAT partition to hold the UFS driver, unless Intel > > could be convinced to include it in the firmware itself (not terribly > > likely, I guess). > > Even so, you still *have* to have the FAT filesystem, AFAIR. Yes - I was reading up on this today. There *has* to be at least one EFI System partition which contains drivers and OS loaders. Since it has to exist, I guess loader.efi might as well live there. -- Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com Phone: +44 20 8348 6160 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ia64" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.33.0103071913520.30562-100000>