[PROPOSAL] extended payload handling

[Kevin O'Connor]

On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 12:49:38PM +0200, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Feature plugins like "testbios" should not be merged into LinuxBIOS'
> core code. Instead they should be implemented as a payload. Since we
> want to load an operating system later on, we also need to be able to
> load more than one payload. Implementing ELFLOAD in each such plugin is
> inadequate. Instead LinuxBIOS should execute multiple payloads the same
> way it executes multiple "drivers" now.

Hi Stefan,

If I understand your proposal correctly, one of the major issues will be
ensuring that the payloads don't step on each other or linuxbios when they
run.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just link linuxbios and all the payloads together
at compile time?  Essentially, that is what your proposal is doing, except
it does it at run time.

So, couldn't an __init tag be created (a la linux) that marks functions to
be run prior to the bootloader.  With this feature, modules could then be
created entirely separate from the linuxbios core that just define a single
__init entry point.  A simple post-build script could then collect all the
user's modules, scan them for __init functions, create a stub function that
executes the __init functions, and then link the whole mess into the final
linuxbios target..

The above seems functionally equivalent to me, but conceptually simpler;
did I miss something?
-Kevin