Re: "The installed loader is a binary, not a filesystem, so even minor changes require recompiling." -George W. Lucas in Absolute fBSD

>Um, Michael W. Lucas , not George...

That's hilarious... George Lucas must be Michael Lucas' successful movie director uncle though. The power of collective conditioning at work.

Thank you for pointing out my silly mistake.

J.

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On Monday, 18 December 2023 at 22:47, Steven Friedrich freebsdlouisville@gmail.com wrote:

> On 12/18/23 3:17 PM, Jop wrote:
> Um, Michael W. Lucas , not George...
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I have just begun my journey into FreeBSD using George W. Lucas'
>> /Absolute FreeBSD /3rd edition/./ My question is about chapter 4
>> /Start Me Up! The Boot Process,/ page 51.
>> I was befuddled by a statement he made, likely due to my IT nescience.
>> To my confusion, Lucas states:
>>
>>> A BIOS has all sorts of limitations. The boot loader must reside in a very specific section of the disk. BIOS can’t boot from disks larger
>>> than 2.2TB. The target boot loader must be smaller than 512KB—huge
>>> by 1980
>>> standards, yes, but paltry today. :::**The installed loader is a
>>> binary, not a filesystem, so even minor changes require recompiling
>>> :::.
>>
>> Though this aspect of his introduction to FreeBSD is not about FreeBSD
>> directly, it seems vital for me to understand this correctly so that I
>> can aptly understand FreeBSD as a sheer operating system and how an
>> operating system boots. I was confused about Lucas' description because
>> he is implying there are /some /conditions in which a bootloader can be
>> an actual /filesystem/. This appears very illogical to me, as to me he
>> seems to be saying the loader itself should be something like FAT32,
>> UFS, or ZFS. Though filesystems, if my understanding is correct, help us
>> /organise /our data, they do not themselves /contain /data but rather
>> offer an organised space /for /that data, like a library with empty
>> bookshelves that we are ourselves to fill. Hence, if that "library" does
>> not contain a bit of data (e.g. the bootloader) that tells the BIOS how
>> to boot the operating system, the operating system cannot boot. Hence,
>> it is logically implied that the bootloader cannot be called in itself a
>> filesystem—not just /sometimes /under some conditions, but /ever/.
>> As I trust Lucas' expertise, how have I misread him? What is he actually
>> trying to say?
>>
>> I have searched online, and read a Wiki on bootloaders
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootloaderand filesystems
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootloader, only to have my asinine
>> interpretation confirmed.
>>
>> Now, one a second note, I am new to the FreeBSD community, I have not
>> before used mailing lists, and the FreeBSD forums were down. I
>> understand IT communities can be strict about what and how things are
>> communicated, and I hope i have done right by sending this email. I hope
>> that I have done sufficient research by searching online, consulting the
>> WiKi pages, the mailing list archives, and of course Lucas' book. I hope
>> that my question is on-topic enough and that my beginner-level will not
>> stagnate the flow of your erudite communications. Should I have not
>> utilised this mailing list properly, kindly accept my apologies and let
>> me know.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> /J./