Re: FreeBSD/s390 port (was: single user vs multiuser boot)

On Fri, Feb 18, 2005 at 12:46:41AM -0500, Garance A Drosihn wrote..
> At 12:33 AM +0000 2/18/05, Alex Burke wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >I was wondering what gives the kernel the ability to boot in
> >multiuser mode, and whether it is some code in the kernel or
> >whether it is the init process and associated tools?
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/kern/init_main.c
> 
> is the part of the kernel which decides to execute the program
> which is in /sbin/init.
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sbin/init/init.c
> 
> is the init program.  This is the program which notices you
> requested 'boot -s', and it decides whether to go into
> multi-user mode, or if it should ask you:
> 
>   "Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh: "
> 
> So, if you're seeing that prompt when the system goes into
> single-user mode, then you could check that source file to
> see what it does for multi-usermode.
> 
> >As a follow-up question, if the kernel for a new architecture
> >can already boot in single user mode, would it be just a matter
> >of compiling init and those tools for that particular
> >architecture to get the kernel to run in multiuser mode?
> 
> I'm afraid I have no idea how much additional work it would take
> to get from single-user mode to multi-user mode.
> 
> >The reason I ask these questions is that I would like to continue
> >work on the FreeBSD/390 port. I have a mini mainframe (P/390) which
> >I could use to test the code on real hardware, and I'd much rather
> >use FreeBSD/390 than Linux/390 on the little box!

You should also contact Poul-Henning (phk_at_FreeBSD.org) as he had an
interest in the s/390 work at the time.  He might be able to offer
some more insight.

-- 
Wilko Bulte				wilko_at_FreeBSD.org