Re: Command extension suggestions

[Bean]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 01:50:38PM +0200, Marco Gerards wrote:
> Bean <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 12:49:26PM +0200, Marco Gerards wrote:
> >> Well, I see the problem but I do not agree with the solution.
> >> 
> >> The problem for GRUB 2 is that initrd is very linux specific.  It's
> >> part of a loader.  Perhaps we either have to extend loopback to load a
> >> file into memory on beforehand.  Or add a memdisk disk or so.
> >> 
> >> One problem with initrd is that it is very architecture specific.
> >> Another problem is that the initrd is unloaded when you load another
> >> kernel or OS.  Besides that, reusing initrd appears hackish to me :-).
> >
> > I have another idea on this subject. First, We can extend the function of
> > grub-mkimage so that it can handle data files. The data files embed in
> > core.img can be accessed using a special device such as (ed). Then, we can
> > put all necessary files, such as modules, grub.cfg and other data files in
> > a single core.img. This kernel is self-sustaining, no extra file is needed
> > for it to function properly.
> 
> This sounds good.  In what way do you want to embed them?  A
> filesystem image (for example minixfs)?  Some simple archive?

We can embed them the same way we embed modules. Just add a header:

SIGNATURE
FILENAME
DATA

SIGNATURE is used to distinguish data file from normal module, FILENAME is
used by the virtual device to identify the data.

-- 
Bean <address@hidden>