frank@wins.uva.nl said:
> All the kernel needs to know is <device,start,end> for the root
> partition. It would be trivial to add this to, for example, the i386
> bootblocks for passing it along to the kernel. I rather like the
> notion of having no knowledge of partitioning in the kernel
> whatsoever.

While this is an interesting approach, I'm afraid it will
be at the expense of robustness. Let's say I've messed up
my /netbsd and load a rescue kernel from floppy, DOS or
network, but still want my normal root fs (ie, "boot -a"
on i386). The bootloader doesn't know about the hard disk
filesystem, doesn't have disk support at all or the
root disk controller is not supported by the firmware.

Further, if some work can be done in the bootloader or
in the kernel, I'd always prefer to do it in the kernel.
It has less size restrictions, a bigger set of support
functions and debugging support. Debugging a boot loader
is a PITA.

best regards
Matthias