On Tue, Jul 17, 2001 at 02:50:53PM +0200, Jens Schmalzing wrote: > Hi, > > Ethan Benson writes: > > > > bsd=/dev/hda10 hd:11,/netbsd > > > that is a non-trivial change and would require completly rewriting the > > config file parsing of ybin. > > Would it be easier to implement two separate options? I'm thinking of > something along the lines of > > ofwboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofwboot.elf > bsd=hd:11,/netbsd
no there is too much cruft like this already, im putting a stop to it
now.
the proper implementation is to have a config entry like this (i
haven't totally decided) :
other=/dev/hda11
label=NetBSD
chainloader=/usr/local/lib/yaboot/ofwboot.elf
kernel=/netbsd
a MacOS entry would look like:
other=/dev/hda15
label=MacOS
basically i am sick of these specialized global option cruft like bsd=
macos= macosx= its gross and limited. the ofboot menu loader already
has had the capability for user configurable key and label but ybin
has not supported it due to its limited config parsing.
ybin should not have to have special knowledge of all these OSes,
there should be a generic interface you can use in the config file to
load a new OS.
ideally i would rather see this chainloading stuff be done by yaboot
itself so we don't have this dual interface thing, but thats somewhat
trickier since yaboot doesn't play nice with OpenFirmware. maybe when
i/someone ports silo, or rewrites yaboot...
in any event a better config file parsing routine would be a good thing
since it would allow me to do much better validation of the config
file (making sure kernels actually exist and that partition= is set
correctly, etc).
i have another idea i am going to try on implementing a `stateful'
config file parsing but im not sure if it will work either, all the
other ideas i tried did not.
criteria for suggestions on such a routine:
1: Read my lips, Absolutly NO bashisms.
2: Read my lips, Absolutly NO perl (no python either).
3: POSIX compliance.
4: No massive dependencies on rich full GNU environment, i want to
work on BSD and stripped down busybox boot-floppies. I might
consider letting sed in since woody boot-floppies have that now.
I am interested in hearing suggestions for implementing a clean
*generic* format for alternate OS entries, not more cruft. [*]
[*] the macos, macosx, and such options will still remain even if this
new system is implemented for backwards compatiblity. I won't break
backwords compatbility on the file format, except the bsd= option very
well may die since its apparently been broken from the beginning
anyway.
--
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
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