[Etherboot-developers] Re: Fw: CONSOLE_FIRMWARE: video output suppprt

[<ke...@et...>]

|Hi,
|  In 5.3.1, if -DCONSOLE_FIRMWARE, will compile error:
|bin/bootlib.a(misc.o)(.text+0x267): In function `putchar':
|: undefined reference to `console_putc'
|bin/bootlib.a(misc.o)(.text+0x27d): In function `getchar':
|: undefined reference to `console_ischar'
|bin/bootlib.a(misc.o)(.text+0x286): In function `getchar':
|: undefined reference to `console_getc'
|bin/bootlib.a(misc.o)(.text+0x2b3): In function `iskey':
|: undefined reference to `console_ischar'
|make: *** [bin/via-rhine.tmp] Error 1
| 
|  I copyed video_subr.c and vga.h from linuxbios and modify
|video_subr.c, main.c to support video output under CONSOLE_FIRMWARE.

I think this patch is wrong for several reasons.

CONSOLE_FIRMWARE is for display using the PCBIOS. It's not an error in
the PCBIOS build because those routines are supplied by an assembly code
interface to the PCBIOS.

I'm not sure what you are booting. It sounds like you are booting
LinuxBIOS and loading WinCE but not using a serial console. Then I think
you should:

1. First try to hook into the LinuxBIOS routines for console I/O if
possible. (Is it? I don't know whether LinuxBIOS provides entry points
for console I/O.)

2. Otherwise, the files video_subr.c and vga.h should definitely go
under arch/i386/ (you put them in core/) because the code are specific
to i386 and won't work for other architectures. Then you need to make
the code conditional on CONSOLE_FIRMWARE if you want to reuse that
symbol.  Question to the list: should these files be classified as
CONSOLE_FIRMWARE or should another symbol be invented?

3. For a similar reason, your previous patch to the top level
Makefile.main to make osloader.c depend on wince_loader is also wrong
because the top level Makefile.main should be architecture independent.

So this patch is not accepted as it is because it breaks the separation
between the arch-independent and arch-specific parts of the source tree.
It needs rework.

Please monitor the etherboot-devel list for answers from Eric on the
best way to proceed.