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RFC: What should be done about kernel-image's bootloader questions



Hi,

I have been thinking about the way kernel-images currently handle the
standard bootloader and boot-floppy questions on installation.

Right now its rather deficient on powerpc as it assumes all PowerPCs
are created equal which is far from the truth:

it assumes all powerpcs use quik as the bootloader
it assumes all powerpcs have floppy drives
it assumes its possible to create a boot floppy on all powerpcs. 

NewWorld powermacs all lack floppy drives so it would seem logical to
simply default to do_bootfloppy = False if the machine is a NewWorld
powermac.  

however its impossible to really make a very useful bootfloppy on
powermac in general, for oldworld we can copy the .coff kernel to a
floppy which might be manually bootable via OF, but thats about it.  i
don't know about other powerpc subarchs.  

the bootloader stuff is what i am not entirely sure should be done
with.  yaboot/ybin does not really require anything to be done on
kernel installation assuming /etc/yaboot.conf references the /vmlinux
or /boot/vmlinux symlinks, kernel-image will update those
automatically.  the same is true of silo too but kernel-image does do
a little bit with silo at least.  

I would like to hear what people thing the kernel-image packages
should do on non-OldWorld PowerMacs as far as bootloader setup, and
boot-floppy creation.  at that point filing a bug against
kernel-package asking for the changes will be done.  

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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