More ideas on booting VSTa

Ok, I've had a bit more time to think about the boot problem and I have a
new idea I'd like to bounce around.

There's one prerequisite to all of this thinking - I believe that I'm right
in thinking that it should be possible to create a filesystem within a file
of another filesystem (a bit like stacker does under DOS). If I've got this
wrong stop me now :-)

I still like the idea of keeping the flexibility in having a "boot.lst"
file, but I don't want to force boot filesystems onto people who have no
need for them (or in the case of floppy booting people who really can't have
2 partitions). What I was thinking is this:

1. Invent a new boot file system type - very simple, with limited if any
subdirectory handling.

2. Create utilities to make and repair the boot file system, where the fs
can be made on a raw disk partition or a largish file of an existing fs.

3. Write a boot filesystem server.

4. Write a LILO like boot manager, but instead of reading command parameters
and writing them into a data area or bootsector (as under Linux), write them
into the area reserved for command line parameters of the boot time servers.

5. Ensure that any shutdown utility checks that if our boot fs is really a
file of another fs, that some defined action can be taken in the event that
the boot fs file has been moved.

So far I can't see any obvious problems. As I see it:

A. The new fs behaves like any other fs, eg mount it as "/boot" and we have
something like:

        /boot/vsta
        /boot/dos
        /boot/rs232
        /boot/rs232.new.100193

B. We can have different versions/implementations of the same server (eg the
2 rs232 drivers in the example above) without having to have 2 complete boot
time images.

C. The only thing we need to be able to do is determine where all of the
sectors of the boot fs are, irrespective of whether it's a partition in its
own right or whether it's a file in another fs.

So, (quickly dons a flame proof suit) are there any glaringly obvious points
I've missed here? I'd like to hear any comments. If there's support for
this way forward, how many files would such a boot fs need to support (as a
default - the mkfs facility should allow fewer/more to be selected). Also
how many characters should the filenames be (max). I was thinking about
24-30ish.

Regards,

Dave
Received on Mon Jan 10 05:11:29 1994