On 04/03/2011 04:07 AM, Somebody in the thread at some point said:
Hi -
- And very hardware specific code moved out to a controllable place, i.e. something like BIOS
Sorry, but I must vehemently disagree here. BIOSes are a problem for Open Source, not a solution. On X86 they use BIOS services only when there is simply no other choice, because the BIOS is too often buggy and it is more difficult and risky to update than the kernel.
I followed the lkml thread and saw there bootloaders mentioned as some kind of happy place all problems will be solved. You're quite right it's just a carpet to shove stuff under and stumble over.
If the kernel operation will intimately rely on this information, eg DT tables, and needs its versioning to match kernel code precisely, in the end it can't avoid owning it and that extends up to packaging as well. The "attach device tree data to end of kernel" scheme you mentioned, or taking it inside the kernel tree seems the way to go in that domain not indirecting its availability and versioning through not only bootloader package, code but also environment.
-Andy