[Balloon] Re: kernels

[Nick Bane]

Colin Tuckley wrote:
> Chris Jones wrote:
> 
> 
>>A thought occurs: Samosa-aware software tends to assume that if
>>SM_ABSENT is asserted (ie, there's no SmartMedia card in the slot) it's
>>safe to do Samosa-type things. I can't quite see why the boot loader has
>>anything to do with Samosa, though, since no-one's ever built any Samosa
>>peripherals which are useful before the Kernel's booted - Nick?
> 
> 
> The latest (3.6) bootldr code has Samosa/Minipug stuff in it, presumably
> Nick is using the Framebuffer.
> 
Not quite.

Under bootldr I have created an option to write on the displays in text 
mode. Its actually a bit ropey - more of a technology demonstrator 
really. Whether you want it included in the "offical" bootldr is up to you.

Incidentally, under linux I have crafted a port of gdk onto minipug as 
an alternative backend using the now unmaintained (and broken) linux-fb 
backed as a template and copying a memory image to the minipug kernel 
device driver. That was quite exciting.

Nick

> Colin
>