FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: device drivers

["Ithamar R. Adema" <ithamar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark-Jan,

>Is there some way to add a tar archive to the bootimage, somewhere 
>after the kernel image, so that the kernel can find it's block device 
>drivers in that archive before having mounted any filesystem =3F
>This would allow users to add boot-support for new devices to their
>bootloader, without having to recompile a whole kernel, for which 
>they might not have the right compiler, tools or skills for.

Hehehe. Take a look at newos/kernel/fs/bootfs.c :) This is the 
filesystem you see when doing a "ls /boot" from the NewOS shell. The 
content of this filesystem is defined by newos/boot/arch/i386/
config.ini which lists all files (including path) which are to be 
"build" into the filesystem. Currently, the iso9660 fs is loaded from 
this filesystem to include iso9660 support. You could add any driver to 
the image, and get it loaded automagicly.

Regards,

Ithamar.

PS: Use the source Luke :) There is pretty little docs on NewOS, but 
the source is very readable :)