Re: [Etherboot-developers] image file format and BIOS use

[Tania O. <ta...@ce...>]

Hi again

Thanks for the reply.

> Etherboot supports three loading formats, tagged, ELF and a.out. I'd
> forget about a.out. Tagged is specified in the documentation, ELF in a
> standards document from somewhere. Either one will fit your needs. Your

Isn't there another one called multiboot?  As for ELF, I will look for the
documentation, but could anyone give me a brief description how it works
regarding specifying parameters to be passed to the kernel (i.e. command
line, initrd parameters)?

> time of day, and sizing memory, if I recall correctly. You'll also need
> PCI BIOS support if you have PCI Ethernet controllers.

Do you mean mkbni-linux adds code which calls the PCI BIOS?  (As opposed to
BIOS calls in the Etherboot code.)

> BTW, the BIOS calls are not *to* to the Linux kernel as you assume. The
> Linux kernel is not executing yet at that point. The BIOS calls are to
> the BIOS ROM.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that I thought BIOS calls were to the linux
kernel.  But am I correct in assuming that mknbi-linux adds code which
contains calls to the BIOS which is NOT part of the kernel image but which
is expected to be executed at the time Etherboot passes control to the code
in the file it downloaded?  Sorry for the long sentence :)

Thanks again.