ref: 254b07675e1a5348f2a8723f55e6b5b1b18a4721
dir: /os/boot/README/
Often the devices we use now come with some form of bootstrap (often annoyingly complicated, which gets in the way). Older boards were sometimes bare, and we had to provide something (often annoyingly complicated...). On the PC it's currently helpful to have something that can boot from disc or ether; since it's a thankless task to write such a thing, we use Plan 9's, and thank its authors. The current scheme on newer devices is to have a simple program that can put a stripped-down Inferno kernel into flash, and use that to boot from other devices (including over the net) as required during development. There are two distinct models for bootstrap in this directory. Model I Each member of the first model is represented by a self-contained directory. They are derived from various ages of Plan 9's /sys/src/boot/pc. arm1110 arm a prefix to a gzip'd kernel to decompress it (runs after basic bootloader) pc 386 pc-specific bootstrap essentially identical to current Plan 9 and covered by the Lucent Public License; it uses libflate - zlib-style inflate/deflate library mpc power PowerPC bootstrap for FADS board derived from an older version of Plan 9 but covered by our Inferno licence (because it came with Inferno) puma arm SA110 bootstrap for Teralogics Puma, also covered by the Inferno licence Model II omap purpose-built bootstrap for the OMAP processor Not all of these are being distributed.