[U-Boot-Users] Re: A call for boot loader IDs

[Wolfgang Denk]

Hi,

in message <bqqc9l$qo6$1 at cesium.transmeta.com> you wrote:
> 
> So far only a small number of boot loaders have actually officially
> registered their IDs, this is the list that I have:

I have to admit that I don't understand why such  a  registration  is
useful, but anyway...

>   type_of_loader: 

What exactly is "type_of_loader" and where does it play  a  role?  We
never ran over it before...

>         If your boot loader has an assigned id (see table below),
>         enter 0xTV here, where T is an identifier for the boot loader
>         and V is a version number.  Otherwise, enter 0xFF here.
> 
>         Assigned boot loader ids:
>         0  LILO
>         1  Loadlin
>         2  bootsect-loader
>         3  SYSLINUX
>         4  EtherBoot
>         5  ELILO
> 
>         Please contact <hpa at zytor.com> if you need a bootloader ID
>         value assigned.

Please assign a bootloader ID for U-Boot, the "universal bootloader".

> I would really appreciate if other boot loaders -- especially GRUB,
> which is widely used -- would let me know (a) what they are currently
> doing, and (b) whether or not they need an official allocation.  It's
> probably unwise to not do so, at least for the ones which have a
> significant user community.

(a) U-Boot supports PowerPC, ARM, MIPS, NIOS, and  x86  systems.  The
    "official"  source  tree (http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot)
    has standard configurations for more than  160  boards  (PowerPC:
    MPC5xx,  MPC8xx, MPC5xxx, MPC824x, MPC826x, MPC85xx, PPC4xx, 7xx,
    74xx; StrongARM; ARM7;  ARM9;  Xscale;  MIPS  4kc,  5kc,  au1x00;
    i486).

(b) I have no idea if we need a bootloader ID value assigned;  please
    decide yourself.

> The purpose of this ID is so we can work around individual boot loader
> issues if we should have a need to adjust or change the boot
> protocol.  Not reporting a unique ID makes this impossible.

Please explain what you mean by "adjust or change the boot protocol".
Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, but all of this  sounds  a  bit
x86-centric  to  me,  while  U-Boot  is  mostly  dealing  with  other
architectures where things are more straight-forward than on x86.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd at denx.de
       There is enough for the need of everyone in this world,
       but not for the greed of everyone.     - Mahatma Gandhi