Re: Command extension suggestions

[Marco Gerards]

Bean <address@hidden> writes:

> 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.

I will commit a patch soon that adds support for a dummy disk driver.
In that case we just have to add a filesystem which offers access to
this embedded data.  I think this can even be done without changing
the kernel a lot and adding this support in a module :-).

I would welcome such patch :-)

--
Marco