Re: Kernels > 1M

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Mon, 09 Aug 1999 09:40:32 -0700

Werner Almesberger wrote:
> > The main reason I'm writing lbcon is because I think it will make doing
> > fancy stuff with initrd a lot less painful, and it should be easy to put
> > a nice user interface on it. That's the theory, at least...
>
> Actually, I think the boot loader isn't the best place for fancy stuff.
> I'd rather put this into the kernel, where I have a much nicer environment,
> and where things can be done once for all architectures. initrd was a first
> step in this direction.

I think the kernel is largely by definition too late, in particular
because one of the first things the Linux kernel does is to burn all the
bridges to the BIOS. I *was* looking into the possibility of using a
modified kernel (similar to MILO), but I think it was more painful than
anything.

> Something I'd like to try later this year is to allow a running Linux
> kernel to directly boot another Linux kernel. This should allow for very
> rapid test cycles for kernel development, and it should also allow all the
> fancy stuff to be done under Linux, including loading of kernels from any
> file system supported by the kernel without the need for prior
> registration.

Catch-22?

-hpa

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