Re: [XenPPC] [PATCH] Option to override firmware bootargs

[Amos Waterland <apw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Sep 18, 2006 at 09:19:29AM -0500, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-09-17 at 02:40 -0400, Amos Waterland wrote:
> > I recently got a few hours on a Maple development board.  I wanted to
> > boot with an nfsroot, but I didn't want to risk changing the bootargs
> > saved in the PIBS firmware.  This patch lets Xen choose to override the
> > bootargs supplied by the firmware if the user specifies `bootargs=builtin'.
> 
> We already have too many ways of passing boot parameters. I'll be taking
> a look at GRUB in the near future, so hopefully most of them will become
> obsolete.

This is not a very good response.  Perhaps I did not properly explain
what the problem is.

The patch solves a real problem that using GRUB does not.  I need to
boot Xen on a large number of machines (50 or more), and whenever you
reach that scale you find it necessary to reduce the state of each actor
in the system.

I want to reduce the state saved on each individual machine.  I.e, if
the last person who happened to work on a particular blade happened to
put a boot argument in the firmware that breaks me, I want to be able to
override him.  I need to boot 50 or more machines at once and I do not
control the machines, I only get access to them periodically.

Please explain how using GRUB is going to help.  Keep in mind that I
might not be able to force the machine owners to install GRUB, and many
of the machines don't even have a hard drive.


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