[syslinux] Task wishlist (was Re: SYSLINUX 3.70-pre1: development release)

[H. Peter Anvin]

Luciano Rocha wrote:
> 
> That is interesting. Myself, I've given some thought, but not much time,
> to:
> 
> 1. make syslinux a mini-os, with some basic operations (dir and file
> ops, mem alloc, and line input/output). The loader would load a standard
> elf file, and the current features would be implemented as shared
> libraries.
> 

Well, #1 is halfway there.  I don't do directory reads or file writes 
(writing disk is *much* harder than reading), and I would prefer to not 
go down that route.

One thing I'd like to do is to support multiple "COMELF" modules which 
can call each other; similar to the way kernel modules work in Linux. 
The main piece of technology for that is an ELF dynamic linker, which 
obviously have been implemented hundreds of times, but making one work 
in a specific environment can easily be as much work as writing one from 
scratch.

> 2. add support for intel-vt/amd-v to memdisk, to allow emulation of
> devices even under linux/windows.
> 
> 3. com32 module for loading linux kernels directly from rpms or debs,
> with the option of keeping the contents of the package as part of the
> initramfs.
> 
> Of the three, the last is the simpler and less intrusive, so I've been
> playing with it when I can. But lately I'm just battling with the
> current buildsystem trying to build syslinux with a cross-compiler on my
> OS X powerpc.
> 
> I'd suggest a list on the wiki of tasks that you believe are simple
> enough for someone without much knowledge of syslinux internals, and
> maybe compile a list of more arduous task for participation in google's
> summer of code.

That's a thought.  I started something up at:

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/Help_wanted

Right now it's pretty disorganized.  As usual with the wiki, I wouldn't 
mind help organizing it!

	-hpa


	-hpa