Re: [MiNT] Idea for boot sequence

[Jo Even Skarstein <joska@online.no>]

On Wed, 2010-12-15 at 15:49 +0200, Peter Slegg wrote:
> The default folder would remain the same. How many ini's do you need ?

What is the "default folder"? I expect one mint.ini for each version of
MiNT. If I have one stable and one dev-kernel, I would probably want
debug enabled in only one of them.

> It only has a few params and it would still be easy to access and
> change if there is a boot issue.

Every time you boot? Sounds easier to boot TOS and fix stuff in the rare
occasions where the system-folder is messed up.

> The problem with the current system is if the correct folder is not
> there the it won't boot. There is no Mint fallback.

There is. It's called TOS.

> I've had situations where the mistake was in a sym link on an ext2
> drive and that's irritating.

And your solution wouldn't do anything about it. That symlink to
xaloader will cause the wrong xaaes.km to be loaded - it can only be
fixed by booting the correct kernel or fixing the symlink. Not by
reading the wrong mint.cnf or loading the wrong modules.

> There is also the init infinite loop problem.
> 
> I was suggesting a simple method to avoid such issues by using the
> alternative mint folder that might allow it to boot.
> 

It's much easier to just boot the correct kernel. If you have several
MiNT system folders on your boot drive, I would expect you to have a
kernel for each of them too.

> Linux uses a menu to let you pick different kernels for such situations.

That's usually grub. It will let you choose which *kernel* to load :)
XBoot would offer similar functionality in our case. I have been using
it since 1994 with good results.

> Maybe mint.prg should sit in the correct mint folder and a loader app
> goes in the AUTO ?

Yes, that could be a solution. I guess it wouldn't be too hard to Pexec
a kernel, as long as it inherits the working directory on the loader. It
would certainly clean up the auto-folder if you have many MiNT-versions
installed.

I only have two, so for me this is not a problem.

Jo Even