Re: [MiNT] boot manager

[Paul Wratt <paul.wratt@gmail.com>]

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 10:14 PM, Miro Kropacek <miro.kropacek@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If yours was designed to allow easy extension, suitable for a
>> ACP/FireBee, ie it had graphics+mouse (extensions), could boot on any
>> current OS (TOS included, even if it had to be compiled specifically),
>> then I think it is definitely needed
>>
>> The big question is:
>>  "what are your ideas on functionality"
>>  "what did you want it to look like"
> I think you're missing the point here. My question wasn't about new
> XBoot but about boot manager (second stage loader if you want)
> handling disk partitions as we can't currently choose from what
> partition / OS boot process should continue, as it's hard-wired in
> hddriver.sys.
>
I presumed you were talking about a non-graphical way of showing this process.

What I was saying is similar to what Vincent outline in "3) Knowledge
of filesystems for accessing files", the main program itself

At the moment your are talking about specific hd and driver related tasks.

If you build it in a plug-able way (read: easily extendible way),
other additions could be made to the program, ideas and options that
are currently outside the "norm" could be easily added, say a stage
2.5.x, one of which could be a xboot replacement (if there was one)

if this mikroloader becomes a reality, then MiNT will become aware or
it, in which case preserving or maintaining startup and shutdown
screens (and other media or processes) could be done with an extension

> GGN, you've got a point, it's certainly easier to make a few bytes big
> boot loader for netbsd from AUTO than create boot manager in MBR for
> it :) But anyway, let's hear if anyone else has something to say,
> personally I like this as developer, it could be quite fun to code,
> especially when making partition scheme compatible with Windows/Linux
> (so called MBR partition scheme), in that case you could have Windows,
> Linux, TOS, NetBSD/atari and Linux/atari on the same disk and only
> thing needed to boot on PC and/or Atari would be to rewrite MBR itself
> (to bootstrap each of OS). In case of PC with Lilo or Grub, in case of
> Atari with my futuristic boot manager :)
>
this, and the other comments about MBR replacement can be done
relatively easily because most (all?) partitions on a hard drive
contain there own boot record, separate from the MBR, even when there
is only one partition

there is also space available on certain sectors that are empty or
unused within the first couple of  tracks from the boot record and
partition table, so you can essentially store 2 boot sectors per
partition, allowing both Atari & wintel boot processes

> Sounds good but I'm not sure about practical application, especially
> in a world with CF<->IDE/SATA adapters...
>
SATA is a super set of IDE, and should not be to far outside what has
already been done by Vincent and Didier, you would just need some
hardware to test it on.

According to this thread and the others regarding extending TOS rom,
there is a good chance these two are directly linked. And what I
remember of FAT32, it should not be too differcult to add support. the
question is what needs changing in EmuTOS for that to become a
reality.

How much is known about the hd-driver boot loader, can you dynamically
modify it, or dynamically write it, or call the driver directly

Anyway, I think you are onto something here, no matter how it turns
out, especially if it can include some of the things posted about (eg.
MiNT boot loader)

Paul