about linux, linuxbios and bootup times

[linuxg33k]

Hi everyone.

I'm a new member, I joined the list to learn more about the Linuxbios 
project.  A question for anyone that can point me in the right direction 
to information:

Q: I read everything on linuxbios.org as well as googled until i got a 
nosebleed, but i can't find any real world examples of linuxbios + 
linuxdistro setups.  I am looking right now to purchase a linux bios 
compatable mobo based on the list from linuxbios.org to play around 
with, but what i was wondering is, just how can linuxbios speed up the 
boot process of a linux based system?  Pardon my newbieness, but I have 
never had a bios be anything more than a fraction of the total bootup 
time on any linux system, so does linuxbios have the capability to 
litterally boot a linux system to cli login prompt of any distro within 
seconds or not?  I realize it's a general question, assume I'm running 
debian base install ( no x, no desktop environment, boot staright to 
command line), most of the bootup process is taken up by the bootup 
scripts checking the hardware and starting up various services (I 
probably have too many and unoptimized i'm sure but thats another issue 
alltogether).   From everything that I have read, I am understanding 
that basically its a faster bios that jumps to the distros bootloader 
when done?  Or does this redefine the bootup process where the linuxbios 
is the bootloader and upon coming to life jumps straight to the distro 
kernel?  If it jumps to the distro bootloader surely the time savings 
are a few seconds at best?  If linuxbios takes over some of the 
bootloader functions, how does this affect a typicall install if at all?

Sorry for the overgeneralized questions, I just need a few answers here, 
even if vague to help me create a knowledge sandbox into which i can 
then drill down to proper understanding.

By the way, i read an article recently of an interview with the 
president of Tyan.  According to the interview Tyan will be shipping all 
motherboards with Linuxbios.  I have no idea if they are using the real 
deal from cvs, or forking it, or what, but goddamn that really cool 
stuff.   I'm hoping some of the answers to my question will mean that 
linux on the desktop has a bright future vis a vis Tyan at least.  If 
anyone wants a copy of it, email me and I will attach the html document 
- I knew they would take it down as indeed they have.

Thanks aforehand!!!!

- Rob

[Richard Smith]

linuxg33k wrote:
> By the way, i read an article recently of an interview with the 
> president of Tyan.  According to the interview Tyan will be shipping all 
> motherboards with Linuxbios.

So nuff'  Heres the link to the interview.  Wow thats awesome. LB is 
about to go big time.  If Tyan leads you can bet many others will follow.

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/NewsSearch.asp?DocID=000000000000000000000...

Ron, surely you are part of this.  He lists the US goverment as the 
prime reason for the switch.  Whats the full scoop?

[Li-Ta Lo]

On Fri, 2004-09-10 at 08:49, Richard Smith wrote:
> linuxg33k wrote:
> > By the way, i read an article recently of an interview with the 
> > president of Tyan.  According to the interview Tyan will be shipping all 
> > motherboards with Linuxbios.
>
> So nuff'  Heres the link to the interview.  Wow thats awesome. LB is 
> about to go big time.  If Tyan leads you can bet many others will follow.
>
> http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/NewsSearch.asp?DocID=000000000000000000000...

Registeration required. Can you send a copy ?

Ollie
> Ron, surely you are part of this.  He lists the US goverment as the 
> prime reason for the switch.  Whats the full scoop?
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Richard Smith]

Li-Ta Lo wrote:
> > http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/NewsSearch.asp?DocID=000000000000000000000...
>
> Registeration required. Can you send a copy ?

Really?  I got that from a google search..  Worked for me w/o registration.

Try this.  Scroll down and click on the link to the article works for 
me.  This will surely wrap so rebuild the url.

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:n6Te6JG-c0IJ:www.linuxforums.org/forum/...

[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004, Richard Smith wrote:
> So nuff'  Heres the link to the interview.  Wow thats awesome. LB is about to
> go big time.  If Tyan leads you can bet many others will follow.
>
> http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/NewsSearch.asp?DocID=000000000000000000000...
> 0002188&query=TYAN
>
> Ron, surely you are part of this.  He lists the US goverment as the prime
> reason for the switch.  Whats the full scoop?

I think it boils down to Tyan being a very forward-thinking company. And 
yes, at least $30M in RFPs from LANL have gone out requiring linuxbios, 
and yes, a lot of companies were unable to bid due to lack of ability to 
provide linuxbios. 

ron

On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 06:59:24PM -0700, linuxg33k wrote:
> From everything that I have read, I am understanding 
> that basically its a faster bios that jumps to the distros bootloader 
> when done?  Or does this redefine the bootup process where the linuxbios 
> is the bootloader and upon coming to life jumps straight to the distro 
> kernel?  If it jumps to the distro bootloader surely the time savings 
> are a few seconds at best?  If linuxbios takes over some of the 
> bootloader functions, how does this affect a typicall install if at all?

LinuxBIOS (plus the payload) will get you as far as loading your linux
kernel. It doesn't do anything for speeding up the time from loading of
kernel to launching of process 1, or the time from launching of process
1 to usability. _However_, it's actually a relatively simple process to
get from jumping to the kernel to, for instance, a directfb based GUI in
under 3 seconds, so those few seconds LinuxBIOS saves you can make a
big, big difference.

A lot of the focus of LinuxBIOS has not been around improved boot times,
which is why stuff like the EPIA-M's terrible boot time has gone
unfixed (there are sleeps in there, and also it defaults to a
compressed linuxbios image) but you take what you can get with free
software, at least linuxbios is GPLed, so if you care enough you
can fix it yourself and contribute those changes back for everyone else.