From owner-freebsd-ia64 Tue Feb 25 13:31:23 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-ia64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F6BF37B401 for ; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:31:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from ns1.xcllnt.net (209-128-86-226.BAYAREA.NET [209.128.86.226]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ABEC143FBD for ; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:31:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from marcel@xcllnt.net) Received: from ns1.xcllnt.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ns1.xcllnt.net (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h1PLVL1o049942; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:31:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from marcel@ns1.xcllnt.net) Received: (from marcel@localhost) by ns1.xcllnt.net (8.12.6/8.12.6/Submit) id h1PLVKvM049941; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:31:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from marcel) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:31:20 -0800 From: Marcel Moolenaar To: Arun Sharma Cc: freebsd-ia64@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Slow loading of the kernel from efifs ? Message-ID: <20030225213120.GA49775@ns1.xcllnt.net> References: <200302251946.h1PJktr26424@unix-os.sc.intel.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200302251946.h1PJktr26424@unix-os.sc.intel.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-ia64@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 11:46:55AM -0800, Arun Sharma wrote: > > I've noticed that it takes a long time for the boot loader to load the > kernel from the efifs (especially for the GENERIC kernel which is 9MB > or so in size). I also noticed that the efifs read function is using a > 8K block size to read data. Has anyone tried bigger block sizes ? > > Also, Why not read it using just one big EFI_FILE.Read call ? The EFI loader hooks into an existing infrastructure that has to work with anything from floppy disks, CD to BOOTP/DHCP. Clearly, a non-optimized hook-up like we have now may not be what we want, but it works. I don't think we'll ever have a fully EFI optimized loader, because that conflicts with a platform independent frame- work. In time when more important work has been done (or we have more people to do the work) we may want to improve the EFI loader further, possibly tweaking the infrastructure to the benefit of all. There may be some low-hanging fruit or even some genuine bugs that may improve this without much work, but I haven't looked at it. BTW: It would be nice if we could fix the loader to not have fs0 hardcoded, but instead use device paths to figure out which mapping to use (maybe even create our own mapping). Would you be willing/able to give that a shot? -- Marcel Moolenaar USPA: A-39004 marcel@xcllnt.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ia64" in the body of the message