Anything that makes porting drivers eaiser is a good thing.

The BSD license isn't much of a problem. The GPL license is probably what he's referring to as the GPL isn't compatible with the MPL which the APL is based on. That means device drivers based on GPL code would not be possible with the current kernel. If the kernel becomes seperate modules that don't link to each other, GPL drivers become possible.

The GPL allows simple aggregation, but no linking. His change turns the kernel from one large interlinked file into an aggregation of non-linked files. This change could really speed up the development of hardware drivers. Right now, you can use the GPL drivers for info about the hardware only. You cannot use the code at all. That would change if the proposed idea went through.

If you want to look at how linux starts on an Open Firmware machines, check out yaboot. That's what all linux distros for the Mac use.

This could be handy when TCP/IP is done, to allow for things like seperate server/client setups without needing to have two completely seperate builds to keep them both as lean as poss. Just a thought

Like the TCP/IP code in freeBSD ?

I may be missing something here, but is there any reason the tcp/ip bounty cant now be done by merely porting the existing FreeBSD code?
If its a licencing issue, this would solve that.

Maybe...

OK, My curosity is getting the better of me. Would someone please give me a hand here. Michale's changes say that it would allow Aros to use modules that are not of the same license. Cool. Like what??

Michale,

My opinion is always the same. Anything that makes AROS more flexible and less unixish is good. Modularity is a Good Thing! If people start creating custom kernels how would AROS differ from those beasts?

Pozdrawiam,

QUS.

Ya!! What everyone else said!!

This is good. I like it.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that you can build kernel images via a web interface. No need to install Linux to customize a Linux kernel, for example. This of course becomes an issue when, after installing Linux, you realize you don't have any of the proper drivers for your hardware, thus requiring you to boot into, say, Windows, grab the required driver sources, and then find a way to transfer them into the Linux world (especially if the collection of files is bigger than a floppy). Often, you waste a CD-ROM if it doesn't fit on a floppy, and well, it's doggone inconvenient as well.

This solves that problem *completely*.

I strongly support this idea.

Quote:
Theoretically yes. It would allow to throw unneded modules away or even on-demand building of kernel images through a web interface.

Quote:

AFAIR no. Using eg. OpenFirmware it is possible to load files using the OF interface. If any issues would arise, we could look how initrd of linux is done on another platforms.

BTW. Some of modules could be reused in hosted aros even.

So this would allow folks to tweak AROS to make it as small of a foot print as possible? Say for those who are working on embedded AROS? Would this have any negative impact to those doing AROS ports of non-x86 hardware?

Dammy
TeamAROS