Re: grub2 multiboot for ppc and system initalization

[Marco Gerards]

Noah yan <address@hidden> writes:

Hi Noah,

> I am glad that I have finally made the grub2 multiboot for ppc working. It
> is based on Hollis' earlier work (
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2005-06/msg00049.html) .
> Hollis' hello world example works for my building environment and system,
> which is Mandrake Linux (2.6.11) on Power Mac G4. A patch is attached for
> grub 1.92 release. The patch also includes the util/powerpc/ieee1275/grub-
> install.in file, which is missed in 1.92 release (but in cvs checkout). I
> have trouble to create the patch by cvs diff, so to apply it, you may have
> to use "patch -p1" under the grub2 folder.

Cool, but I wonder if it can be applied.  Mainly because it is most
likely not multiboot compliant because multiboot is x86 only, or am I
misunderstanding something?

> As in x86 and sparc, the multiboot strap is basically not the real kernel,
> but a loader to load ramdisk and initializer of system before exitto unix
> module. Here comes several choices about the system initialization:

Can you explain that?  Usually the kernel loaded by multiboot *is* a
real kernel.  So I don't understand what you mean.  Perhaps you are
confused by a single implementation.

> 1. should the multiboot strap trust the multiboot_info passed from grub? x86
> multiboot only use the cmdline of it and multiboot is changing as from grub
> developers.  If use it, it may save some coding efforts.

Can you please elaborate?

> 2. if multiboot strap collect system information by itself, should it use
> GRUB ieee1275 functions or Solaris's own code(mainly in psm/promif/ieee1275,
> but would have to port to ppc). Using Grub2's code saves efforts to port
> Solaris code.

Please explain what you mean with multiboot strap.  It certainly isn't
GRUB related terminology I have heard of.

> 3. grub2 network is not available (Marco planned to work on it on Feb as
> posted from grub wiki), shall we port the solaris network stack
> (src/stand/lib) for grub or wait?

Please wait and who is we?

> In summary, what is the role the grub should play in booing and system
> initialization, only as a loader, or a loader and system utilities that help
> system booting and other purpose? In Solaris x86, I only found the cmdline
> of multiboot_info is used by the multiboot strap.

It's the loader.  I am not sure about what you are saying, but GRUB
certainly does not provide run time services to kernels or so.

Unfortunately I fail to understand a big part of your email.  Can you
please describe which project you are working on and what you are
trying to accomplish?  And please use the terminology we are used to,
otherwise it is hard to understand you.

--
Marco