[RELEASE] New Boot-Loader Menu -- version 1.5

[Mehmet Erol Sanliturk]

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 3:15 AM, Michael Reifenberger <mike at reifenberger.com
> wrote:

> Hi,
> this looks very promising!
>
> While you are working on the loader front currently,
> would it be possible to implement a "Boot kernel.old"
> menue item that unloads all current loaded modules and re-loads
> everithing from /boot/kernel.old?
>
> Its difficult to handle manually in the loader (esp. handling the
> zpool.cache file ) and I got bitten by this issue recently in a ZFS only
> environment.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Bye/2
> ---
> Michael Reifenberger
> Michael at Reifenberger.com
> http://www.Reifenberger.com
>
>
Many of the Unix/Linux operating systems are utilizing a Kernel Selection (
let's call it Selection instead of Loader ) menu , such as GRUB or LILO , or
,
in FreeBSD , when Kernel Selection menu is selected instead of booting
directly from boot sector .

Actually , a Kernel Selection menu in front of the Boot Loader menu is a
more flexible method :
First select kernel , then select its booting structure with the above
described Boot Loader menu .

My opinion is that , they should NOT be COMBINED into one single menu ,
because , in the same system , even there may be other kernels to be booted
.

Some operating systems , such as OpenSolaris and Mandriva Linux , after
updating the kernel , they are keeping previous kernel in the Kernel
Selection menu , under the new kernel name item .

Such a system may be employed for the FreeBSD : If a kernel.old is generated
, it may be inserted into Kernel Selection menu automatically . If , at
present , there is no kernel selection menu but boot sector is used directly
, kernel build system may modify that structure also to utilize a Kernel
Selection menu .


Thank you very much .


Mehmet Erol Sanliturk