On 12/2/06, Anton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It would be nice to have TMS (Test Monitor System) onboard. Some big vendors > have it on their systems for ages. > Pros: > a) Test for DRAM > b) Test for Media (HDD, CF, SD, ..) connected to the host > c) Test for Peripherals > Cons: > a) size. may not fit into 1/2/4 Mbit. > > TMS is a regular payload, access is done via RS232 (or USB in future), the > same way as we all see printk messages nowdays. > However, it's not yet clear to me is it possible to have multiple payloads at > once and how to choose between them. > Where to store boot options (CMOS is a way too small for it). > > Another concept to store big payloads which can't be stored in flash (even 16 > Mbit is not enough) is to have > dedicated partition. On booting media. With FAT16 or use a very simple FS to > avoid licensing problems (no journaling > features required). > > Pros: > a) bigger and more payload sources at once from one place > b) possibility to have several linuxbios images to be flashed back in case of > emergency > Cons: > a) need to prepare boot media, like SATA/IDE device, to have dedicated > partition > b) need to add support lines for FS on dedicated FS (however, I see FILO can > boot ext2 partition, > hope this one will be enough).
We're trying to keep linuxbios simple. A TMS payload is fine. Linux is the desired payload, and linux can do a very good job of testing all this stuff, and experience shows it has the best bug-fixed drivers. open firmware could also play this game, and OFW has a lot of drivers too -- more every day, now that it is open source. ron -- linuxbios mailing list [email protected] http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
