Re: Some Doubts About bootsect.S & Setup.S

[John Bradford]

> 1)
> sread:  .word 0             # sectors read of current track
> head:   .word 0             # current head
> track:  .word 0             # current track
> 
> Since a diskette can have at most 2 heads, 80 tracks and 36 sectors per
> track, why are these not bytes instead of words especially since space is at
> such a tight premium in this code?

See:

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=104250711526623&w=2

> Someone(H. Peter Anvin) tell me that these codes was old and broken, and was
> getting nuked in 2.5.

The in-kernel bootloader will almost certainly not be in 2.6.

Personally, I think it would be good to replace it with some kind of
monitor, but I don't think anybody else would agree with me :-)

John.