2000-12-28 13:43:11

by Shane Nay

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Subject: Booting from a non block device

I need to get rid of the abstraction that a block device brings because I
need to run things in XIP (execute in place) mode from our cramfs partition.
(We have uncompressed and aligned files inter mingled with our cramfs stuff
so that the entire distro can be updated in a single flash) The only thing
that's keeping me from finishing at this point is I can't seem to figure out
a smart way to accomplish file system direct booting.

The main.c file is hardwired to boot from a block device, and as such I can't
think of a good way to get around it and put in a filesystem instead. Should
I just cheat and put in a fake block device? Or am I going about this in an
imbecilic fashion?

Any ideas, criticisms are welcome...
Thanks,
Shane Nay.
(BTW: XIP implementation is by another fellow..., I'm just trying to put
together the linear addressing and his pieces into one nice unit, and get rid
of the dev rom copying and unneeded buffering)