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Date:      Thu, 7 Jan 1999 00:27:39 +0200 (SAT)
From:      Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com>
To:        rvb@cs.cmu.edu (Robert V. Baron)
Cc:        rnordier@nordier.com, dcs@newsguy.com, mike@smith.net.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: new boot loader ... documentation
Message-ID:  <199901062227.AAA03048@ceia.nordier.com>
In-Reply-To: <yzsr9t85hmz.fsf@sicily.odyssey.cs.cmu.edu> from "Robert V. Baron" at "Jan 6, 99 02:24:36 pm"

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Robert V. Baron wrote:

> Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> writes:
> 
> > Daniel C. Sobral wrote:
> > 
> > The "new boot blocks" tutorial limits itself to the "boot blocks":
> > that is, the hidden first and second stages of the bootstrap which
> > are written to the disk by disklabel(8).
> 
> What would be equally interesting is a tutorial/overview on btxld,
> btxldr, and btx.  How full an OS is btx?

The FreeBSD version in use at the moment is extremely minimalist.
Essentially, everything that the new boot code can do without isn't
there.

The main constraint is the 8K of disk space available to the
bootblocks, as the same version of btx hosts both the second and
third stages of the bootstrap.

However, a more capable version, that can (primitively) support
its own edit/assemble/link development cycle, is waiting in the
wings; and I guess /boot/loader may need additional facilities at
some stage.

--
Robert Nordier

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