*BSD News Article 85850


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Embedded FreeBSD
Date: 27 Dec 1996 17:04:10 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:33296

Darren Bordelon <darren@wdc.net> wrote:

> We would like to have the the file system in flash ram at some address
> beyond the normal ram memory. Can the kernel be configured, perhaps with
> the ram disk driver, to use such a memory space for a ram disk, or would
> a completely new device driver be needed in this situation?

I think you could write a bootstrap that runs the kernel directly off
the flashram.  Running other binaries from the flashram might be more
complicated.  Perhaps you would indeed better write a `disk driver'
for it.

You could also consider the embedded MFS hack that is used by the
installation floppy, though this is somewhat different from your
desire.

> We would not need most of the stuff under /etc. What is required, if
> anything, by the kernel in this dir?

The kernel doesn't read any files, and the only files it's going to
write directly are coredumps, ktrace output, and process accounting
files.

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)