Re: new bi_rec interface (was Re: [Ppcboot-users] Re: EV-64260 booting)

In message [ref] you wrote:

quoted

What happened to the idea (paulus' idea?) of creating some wrapper
code (eg, zimage) that would build the bootinfo and pass it into
the kernel, so yaboot doesn't need to do much other than pass in
boot params?  This would force us to only boot zimages though
(or whatever wrapper code we create).

from a logistical point of view this really seems to be the best
approach.  keeping all the details in a kernel wrapper of sorts gives

From the point of view of someone who is working mostly with embedded

systems this is definitely the WORST approach (YMMV).

the kernel maintainers much more freedom to make changes in the
future, whereas if its kept in yaboot (rather $bootloader) you have to

The interfaces, once defined, should remain unchanged.

deal with backword compatibility and endless luser error due to using
the wrong bootloader versions with wrong kernels.

There is no need to create such problems in the first place, so don;t
do it then.

of course if someone doesn't want to use the wrapper they can just use
the vmlinux and write thier own bootloader to handle all this stuff
and take on the effort of ensuring its up to date with what the kernel
wants.

What makes you think that kernel interfaces are  somthing  to  change
that  often?  From  the  current  discussion  about bi_recs I got the
impression that we have some kind of  agreement  (in  pronciple,  not
[yet]  in  detail), but what you propose sounds like a full roll-back
to position zero???

Wolfgang Denk

--
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd@denx.de
C++ is the best example of second-system effect since OS/360.

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/