Alex Ionescu wrote:
Here are some changes I made to Freeldr last night. Also to ntoskrnl
and the HAL. Booting takes 4 seconds now and seems much faster, it probably is a bit too.
http://www.relsoft.net/rosldr1.png http://www.relsoft.net/rosldr2.png
In my opinion, it was best before with more graphical design... Now it's just like NTLDR, nothing special... I even think you would better entirely change FreeLDR configuration... I don't like poly-bootloaders (for distinguishing from multiboot, which is a standard) that run from disk partitions... In my opinion, the ideal boot loader: MBR boot code (446 bytes)... loads some contents of the 1st cylinder of the disk (after the MBR sector, it's usually empty)
Contents of that space: configuration of the boot loader (no config reading from partitions while running this first stage boot loader); executable that shows the menu accordingly to the config it should read; some routines (possibly modules) for loading specific OSs, becuase they aren't all started the same way; and parhaps an image in some format... MBR boot code would load (and jump to) the menu binary, which reads the config and builds the menu accordingly... after knowing the user decision, it would read the right routine for that OS... That routine would, then, do what it has to do (i.e. load the kernel, switch to protected mode if that's the case, etc) or just chainload to another partition's boot code (on filesystems that allow it)...
Well, indeed there's a boot loader that works very much like this... GRUB uses that sector to store some parts of the program... but I don't know if it stores there the config and I think that would be essencial (because, in my opinion, a boot loader needs to be independent from operating systems so, for example, there could be configuration floppy disks for changing its configuration)... As Grub is very similar (or parhaps identic) to my description of the ideal boot loader, I would like you to chose Grub as ReactOS boot loader (either by modifying it's configuration or by installing it from scratch, depending on the pré-install configuration)... That is, of course, also making ReactOS multiboot-compilant if it isn't already (It doesn't look like that)...
I don't claim to be a pioneer on those ideas... But I think you are following the same path as Microsoft (i.e. I am the main OS, chainload to my partition and then I can load other OSs if you want) and it's not good... I think a boot loader must be on its own place, and MBR (and those bytes between MBR and the partitions) is the right place for a boot loader...
Finally, I'm merelly giving my opinion... if you think that there are other priorities, I understand that... of course you have many other things to implement/stabilise/improve... I'm not very skilled in programming, otherwise I would help...
João Jerónimo
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From: João Jerónimo Barata de Oliveira
In my opinion, the ideal boot loader: MBR boot code (446 bytes)... loads some contents of the 1st cylinder of the disk (after the MBR sector, it's usually empty)
Contents of that space: configuration of the boot loader (no config reading from partitions while running this first stage boot loader); executable that shows the menu accordingly to the config it should read; some routines (possibly modules) for loading specific OSs, becuase they aren't all started the same way; and parhaps an image in some format...
Seems to me the config would be very hard to maintain. You can't use the "normal" OS utilities like editors to change the config, since the config file is not located on a filesystem.
That is, of course, also making ReactOS multiboot-compilant if it isn't already (It doesn't look like that)...
The kernel isn't multiboot-compliant but FreeLdr is. The nett result is still that you can boot ReactOS from a multiboot-compliant loader (like Grub).
But I think you are following the same path as Microsoft (i.e. I am the main OS, chainload to my partition and then I can load other OSs if you want)
No, we happily co-exist with Grub.
Gé van Geldorp.
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Ge van Geldorp -
João Jerónimo Barata de Oliveira