Re: second-stage bootloader for Thecus N2100?

[Marc Singer <elf@buici.com>]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 04:06:49PM +0000, Paul Jakma wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Are there any plans to add some kind of support for a two-stage boot to 
> Thecus N2100?
>
> At present kernel+initrd are stored in flash on this platform, and so  
> obviously have to be updated on every change. Redboot then boots these 
> directly. The root is stored in the initrd (this avoids having to twiddle 
> RedBoot variables on install, etc.., I gather).
>
> What would be the best way to have some kind of support for retaining  
> old kernel/initrds and booting those? (And is anyone working on this?)
>
> Possible methods:
>
> - APEX support for N2100 (??) (as a 2nd stage)

I'd be glad to do the work if someone wanted to supply the hardware.

> - A small, static Linux env in flash to act as bootloader via kexec ?
>   (suggested by suihkulokki on #debian-arm)
> - custom N2100 bootloader
> - ?
>
> The 2nd one seems the easiest to hack together - though possibly not the 
> fastest boot (but probably not so much extra to matter).

Why not use the initrd in memory to load a second kernel and initrd
from disk?  Then you wouldn't care about the kernel/initrd in flash
so much?

Cheers.