[coyotos-dev] Looking for ideas - image loading

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Tue, 2008-01-29 at 10:14 -0800, Charles Landau wrote:
> At 11:14 AM -0500 1/29/08, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:
> >Unfortunately, the multiboot and lilo loaders all assume that they are
> >loading a[n ELF] binary image. They don't simply copy the file blindly.
> 
> On CapROS for PC, Grub loads an ELF executable kernel and a binary 
> (not ELF) mkimage file. The Grub module command does not assume ELF.

Yes. This is how it currently works for Coyotos too. The requirement for
the module file is what I am trying to eliminate.

> On ARM, the download utility we sometimes use to write the system to 
> flash does not understand ELF. Redboot can do either format.

Yes. That would work for us as well, but it doesn't help with the
netboot issue. Actually, the original impetus here was to avoid
re-flashing until the system is a bit more stable.

> At 11:17 AM -0500 1/29/08, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:
> >I decided to add an ELF segment.
> 
> Gee, you can't blink if you want to contribute to these discussions.

I was expecting a tougher fight with the ELF tools than it turned out to
be.  You can blink safely now.  :-)


shap