[Angstrom-devel] [RFC] update release images with 2007.12-rX

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:17:28 +0100
Koen Kooi <k.kooi at student.utwente.nl> wrote:

[]

> But |> only when new ones ready. I think that we should prioritize
> package |> manager upgrades by all means, and use image upgrades only
> when package |> manager upgrades don't work smoothly.
> 
> It's not meant as an image upgrade, it's meant to improve the
> important 'first impression' new users get from angstrom.

Ok by me then. (Except that I have so much stuff unmerged to help with
that and daily use even better ;-) ).

[]
> |> I'd like to bump to r5 right now, marking that linux-hh kernels
now
> |> support kexec command line.
> 
> Sure, please go ahead with that.

Done.

> 
> | So, it would be Angstrom 2007.12-r5 and
> |> kernel 2.6.21-hh20-r13. Ones the new bootloaders are out, all
> before |> that would need to be nuked. (And all that because of
> thinko in the |> arm-linux kernel and/or kexec command line support
> patch, which |> bothers to put atags not where old kernels expect
> them).
> 
> What do you meant exactly with 'bootloader', is that a bootldr
> replace, LAB, kernel+initramfs as first stage, kernel+initramfs as
> second stage, something else?

Well, I sent RFC on that:
http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/angstrom-distro-devel/2008-February/001776.html
So yes, this is 2nd stage kernel+initramfs solution, replacing a kernel
loaded by 1nd stage bootloader (be it haret, HH.org bootloader,
anything else) [some time ago I proposed to consider NAND bootstrap
loader as 0th stage, so I assume that numbering]. At the same time,
bootloading (actually, interactive selection) functionality is made to
be transparent and used only if no "root=" was specified on kernel
commandline. So actually, it's a drop-in replacement for production
kernel too, which fact RFC above emphasizes and exploits.

(But I intend to add recognition and ignoring of botched commandlines
bootldr passes, so this thing is going to solve lots of issues for
us ;-) ).

> 
> regards,
> 
> Koen
> 
> PS: altboot is broken because it doesn't handle timed-out reads, so
> zaurus people can stop claiming there's a magical kernel version that
> solved it; there isn't

Well, at this time, initramfs-bootmenu-image doesn't support timeout at
all. That's mostly because timeout implies ability to save last choice,
and that in turn is machine-specific stuff which I wanted to keep away
from initramfs-bootmenu-image until it will mature and procedure for
its building will be settled. And even for specific machines, that
requires good thought where to store settings. "If mtd map has 'kernel'
partition, store settings in last few bytes of it"? How does that
sound? ;-)

[]

-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                          mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com