Re: [cobalt-developers] booting the qube 3

[Tim Hockin <thockin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> How is the kernel loaded? It doesn't appeaers to use tftp to get the
> kernel.

There is an in-flash kernel

> Apperantly the nfs share have to be named /nfsroot-x86 or
> /nfsroot-x86single if you boot it in singleuser mode by using 'set_params
> single' over the serial line.

yes

> How is the kernel loaded when it is booted from the disk?  Does the
> firware "know" how to locate the kernel on the ext2-filesystem?

in flash-kernel has some booter hooks to locate and load /boot/vmlinux.gz (or
whatever arg you pass on the bfd command line)

> Would it be posible to boot an other OS for example freebsd? Can the
> bootloader handle this?

the bootloader (by default) loads /boot/vmlinux.gz on an ext2 filesystem.  If
you can convice freeBSD (you can) to make a small ext2 filesystem and put a
gzipped, staticly compiled ELF executable called <ext2fs>/boot/vmlinux.gz, the
firmware will try to boot it.

> What are the ROM and EEPROM used for?

There are a number of EEPROMs on the system, so lets get terms straight :)

The Boot ROM (flash) holds the chipset initialization, boot kernel and related
code (BIOS).