[UPDATE] New Boot-Loader Menu -- version 1.1

Devin Teske dteske at vicor.com
Tue May 3 20:48:21 UTC 2011


> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Baldwin [mailto:jhb at freebsd.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 1:36 PM
> To: Devin Teske
> Cc: freebsd-hackers at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: [UPDATE] New Boot-Loader Menu -- version 1.1
> 
> On Tuesday, May 03, 2011 4:17:23 pm Devin Teske wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: John Baldwin [mailto:jhb at freebsd.org]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:20 PM
> > > To: Devin Teske
> > > Cc: freebsd-hackers at freebsd.org
> > > Subject: Re: [UPDATE] New Boot-Loader Menu -- version 1.1
> > >
> > > On Tuesday, May 03, 2011 2:57:34 pm Devin Teske wrote:
> > > > > From: John Baldwin [mailto:jhb at freebsd.org]
> > > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 10:33 AM
> > > > > To: Devin Teske
> > > > > Cc: freebsd-hackers at freebsd.org; Olivier SMEDTS
> > > > > Subject: Re: [UPDATE] New Boot-Loader Menu -- version 1.1
> > > > >
> > > > > On Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:31:14 pm Devin Teske wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > On May 3, 2011, at 4:45 AM, John Baldwin wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Monday, May 02, 2011 8:48:31 pm Devin Teske wrote:
> > > > > > > > This version (1.1) works nearly identically to the
> > > > > > > > standard menu that ships with FreeBSD in that it detects
> > > > > > > > whether ACPI is enabled (truth be told, I actually re-used the
> "acpienabled?"
> > > > > > > > function verbatim from /boot/beastie.4th by Scott Long and
> > > > > > > > Aleksander Fafula). The ACPI detection of my boot loader
> > > > > > > > (version
> > > > > > > > 1.1 or higher) should be identical to the detection of the
> > > > > > > > current boot-loader.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Ugh. By "current", I meant 8.1-RELEASE (wasn't expecting this
> > > > > > stuff to be different in HEAD, which it is).
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > Err, note that the acpienabled stuff is all different in
> > > > > > > HEAD than in 7/8 since acpi.ko no longer exists.  You should
> > > > > > > use the scheme from HEAD for handling ACPI present vs ACPI
> enabled/disabled.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > --
> > > > > > > John Baldwin
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Ok, I see the new "acpipresent?" word (which replaces the
"arch-i386"
> > > > > > environment-test). Does this imply that we're going to support
> > > > > > ACPI on
> > > > > > non-i386 platforms (or already do)?
> > > > >
> > > > > amd64 and ia64 have always supported ACPI.  ia64 effectively requires
it.
> > > > > However, "hint.acpi.0.rsdp" is set by biosacpi.c in the i386
> > > > > loader bits, so other platforms will not set it, so the
> > > > > arch-i386 test is no longer
> > > > needed.
> > > >
> > > > If "hint.acpi.0.rsdp" is only set in the i386 pieces, wouldn't
> > > > that imply that the "acpipresent?" would return FALSE on IA64?
> > >
> > > Yes.  Right now the ACPI menu item is not displayed on ia64 and it
> > > never has been.  You can't actually boot IA64 with ACPI disabled, so
> > > there's no reason
> > for it
> > > to be in the menu.
> >
> > This raises a concern for my menu. Unlike the current menu, which
> > blanks-out menuitem #2 for IA64, I've chosen instead to insert an
> > inoperative menuitem with the text "ACPI Support: N/A".
> 
> Hmm, I think you should just leave the menu item blank or not listed.  It
doesn't
> make sense to see a knob about ACPI support on a ppc box for example, and
> other platforms may grow platform-specific knobs in the future as well.
> 
> The current menu item is only blank as a hack to avoid renumbering the items.
> If you are already changing that around, then I'd just leave it out altogether
> unless ACPI is detected by the loader.
> 

I too avoid renumbering of the items.

Having never actually booted a PPC or IA64 FreeBSD installation... is it the
case that the numbers displayed jump from 1 to 3 (no blank line in-between 1 and
3, correct)?

I think that sounds like the sensible thing to do.
-- 
Devin

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