[Qemu-devel] [PATCH] x86 Multiboot support (extended)

[Alexander Graf]

Hi,

this patch implements x86 Multiboot support for the -kernel way of  
booting the virtual machine. Multiboot is a new approach to get rid of  
different bootloaders, providing a unified interface for the kernel.  
It supports command line options and kernel modules. The two probably  
best known projects using multiboot to boot are Xen and GNU Hurd. I  
have only tested Xen and a modified mach bootloader that makes use of  
multiboot so far.

This implementation should be mostly feature-complete. I have not  
implemented VBE extensions, but as no system uses them currently it  
does not really hurt. To use multiboot, specify the kernel as -kernel  
option. Modules should be given as -initrd options, seperated by a  
comma (,). The -append option is also supported.

Please bear in mind that grub also does gzip decompression, which does  
not occur with this multiboot implementation. To run existing images,  
please ungzip them first.

Comments are welcome.

Regards,

Alex

qemu-multiboot.patch
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