Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: LILO (fwd) | Date | Thu, 21 Aug 1997 05:36:01 +0000 | From | "Ka'Plaagh" <> |
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> > From: Jim Nance <jlnance@avanticorp.com> > > > If anyone has some spare time (do such people exist?) it would make a > > nice project for someone to change LILO so that it operated more like > > silo, milo, or aboot. These linux boot loaders for the sparc and alpha > > load a second stage boot loader which can understand the file system, > > thus you don't have to rerun LILO every time you want to boot a new kernel. > > I looked at "solo" (not silo), and it even deciphers ELF (though I > suspect at a minimal level). But you still need to store sector > references to find the second stage loader. > > And there's not just "the filesystem", there are several. Thus, > either the second stage loader understands all the important ones, > or it has to have sector links to additional modules. >
MILO includes ext2, iso9660 and DOS.
> (I'd also like to see a bootmanager style menu, ability to > automatically set the default to the last thing you booted, and > stuffing of key strokes; also, IMHO, linux should do more of the work > and the boot loaders less)
MILO does this by leaving a data structure in non-free memory which it looks for on reboot. This structure does not last between resets.
MILO _could_ be ported to other architectures (I get approached all the time for this) and I _have_ thought of porting it to Intel. That's as far as I went although most of MILO is independent of Alpha (around 95%, like the kernel).
Dave
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