Andy Ruhl <acruhl@gmail.com> writes:

> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:49:16 -0400, Christopher Schultz
> <christopher.d.schultz@comcast.net> wrote:

>> I'm no particular expert, but I don't think there's a firmware limit on
>> kernels, but that depends greatly on the configuration of all the
>> loaders that run befor ethe kernel actually boots.
>> 
>> For example, the loader chain goes something like this on 1.6/1.6.1:
>> 
>> 1. Hardware/primordial loader (loads about 512 bytes off the disk)
>> 2. Minimal software boot loader (loads a couple of K off the disk)
>> 3. Kernel loader (loads the entire kernel off the disk)
>> 
>> The firmware would only impose the limit on the size of loader #2, which
>> is by definition 512 bytes (I think).

> Are you describing a cobalt bootstrap or i386? That doesn't sound like
> cobalt... I think the cobalt firmware wants to find a file called
> vmlinux.gz on an ext2 filesystem... There's not outwardly obvious
> bootloaders that I know about on this hardware. Or is there?

The cobalt "bios" is actually a linux kernel in rom.  It definitely
has some size limitations, both compressed and uncompressed.  Search
the archives of this list for more info.

To get around these problems, the current netbsd "rescue" disk installs
a netbsd bootloader but renamed as vmlinux.gz so the linux firmware
can load/run it.  It does not have the size limitations that the
firmware loader has.  It (of course) knows about netbsd partions and
netbsd kernel names, so you don't need to fiddle around with copying a
new kernel to the linux partition anymore.

-Dale

-- 
Dale P. Smith
dsmith at actron dot com

A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion
Q. Why is top posting bad?