> > It seems to me that there are couple of things which can be appended to kernel
> > in this manner:
> > 1. Config file
> > 2. System.map
> > 3. Selected set of modules.
> > 4. Minimal root image (Quick aid in case there is file system failure)
> > 5. Any other user-required features
> [...]
>
> Very interesting idea.
> This evening I have posted the patch for the System.map only. In the next
> days, if I see that there is some interest, I can include the .config data
> too.
Firstly, this part can be maintained independent of linux kernel, and perhaps
with small kernel patch to make these appended files accessible. If the kernel
is not local (i.e. floppy or remote booted), an offline tool should help us to
manage the things.
In fact, what kernel can maintain is only some identity of the kernel and possibly the location of the kernel. All tools can then be offline, and they should
be able to verify whether the kernel that is currently running is same as the
one it is accessing offline. This can be made possible by maintaining a
checksum of some sort.
However the most important aspect is to allow any arbitrary sets of files to
be appended to kernel (and it should be integrated into kernel compilation
scheme), and provide some sort of identity to each file. And as part of standardisation process, the kernel compilation scheme should provide some options
to append 'config' file, system.map and any other relavant information.
Vinod
-- Vinod G. Kulkarni Res: 10-D/14, Siddharth Nagar Stage 2 Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd. Near Octroi Naka, Aundh vinod@pspl.co.in Ph. 0212-351510 PUNE, INDIA Ph.D. Student at Dept. Of CSE, IIT Bombay.(vinod@cse.iitb.ernet.in) "It is hard to accept miracles. Unless everything is a miracle."- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu