ron minnich wrote:
It's interesting to see the variations in thinking on this based on variations in experience. Ed's company builds a system that has no need of option ROMs- they control the platform. I have no need of option ROMs either -- I don't control the platform, but HPC systems don't need them in most cases. We've fielded thousands and thousands of cluster nodes that never need an option ROM, BIOS callback, or even SMI.
Others, coming from an environment rich in option ROMs, see the need.
I agree with Ed. seabios must be optional.
I agree with Stefan. It must be possible to build seabios in easily.
I agree with Jordan. Option roms, and BIOS callbacks, are not going away (IMHO, for at last 5 years). Why? Because vendors are not yet ready to open up those details, now if ever.
So, seabios must
- be easily available via a make Kconfig option
- be optional.
- return from an init call
- assume responsibility (take over from coreboot) for option ROMs
I think this is what Stefan is saying. I agree.
I agree with all of this.
Jordan