Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 10:26:11 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> Cc: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org>, "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@kdm.org>, ia64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Porting the loader Message-ID: <200103071826.f27IQCr01113@mass.dis.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:01:14 GMT." <Pine.BSF.4.33.0103071157050.28771-100000@herring.nlsystems.com>
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> 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.
--
... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his
rivals and unfortunately opponents also. But not because people want
to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force
people to take different points of view. [Dr. Fritz Todt]
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