[syslinux] Considering a major overhaul of the shuffle and boot functions

H. Peter Anvin hpa at zytor.com
Mon Mar 30 13:25:10 PDT 2009


Hello all,

I am considering a major overhaul of the shuffle and boot functions in 
the Syslinux core.  This means that the current API functions 0011h, 
0012h, 001Ah and 001Bh will no longer be supported -- or, in fact, 
supportable.  A new pair of functions will replace 001Ah and 001Bh; 
0012h is redundant and 0011h will no longer be meaningful.

The intent is to push the responsibility for maintaining memory for the 
shuffle descriptors onto the caller.  However, in exchange, there should 
  be minimal -- possibly zero! -- "magic memory" locations that the 
shuffler can't touch (right now the shuffler can't touch anything below 
0x7c00.)

This shouldn't affect any user of the syslinux_shuffle_boot*() APIs, as 
the internal implementation of those APIs will be changed to match.

	-hpa




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