Re: Finishing off Multiboot Specification

[Robert Millan]

On Sun, Aug 02, 2009 at 09:51:00AM -0700, Bogdan wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> I'm interested in helping out with development of GRUB 2. I am particularly 
> interested in seeing the Multiboot Specification being updated; the old one 
> is *very* outdated and the draft isn't actively being worked on. I'm part of 
> both OSDev.org and BonaFide (osdever.net) communities and we'd really like to 
> see an updated version. What can I do to help?
> 
> I assume GRUB is of primary interest here and the Multiboot Specification is 
> mostly explaining what GRUB expects. In that case I assume there might be 
> some things that you already implemented in GRUB that would drive the spec in 
> a certain direction.

One of the major problems with bringing Multiboot2 to a usable state is that
its implementation is in bitrot.

The reason that brought us to this is that it shares very little code with
the Multiboot1 loader.

As a first step, I would recommend rewriting the Multiboot2 loader completely,
basing it off the Multiboot1 with some preprocessor magic for divergences.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."