Rather than autobooting directly to an OS I use a script than allows me to choose MorphOS, linux or the SmartFirmware prompt. Modifying this script is a bit akward though as I have to wait for an OS to load, fire up a text editor, edit, save and reset in order to see how my newly edited script works. What I'd prefer is a program that emulates/provides a SmartFirmware implementation in a shell window running on either linux or MorphOS.

On a similar topic, once the OS is loaded can it still access SmartFirmware?

Both Linux and MorphOS call quiesce() which effectively disables all Open Firmware activity (DMA, I/O activity, disables/resets active devices) and destroys the client interface callback.

So there's not a good way to do it. But if you have another machine running a TFTP server you can just as easily put the boot script on there and edit it from ANOTHER OS :)

Another alternative may be to use an external drive to boot the kernel/script (maybe a small, cheap flash drive).

More advanced users may install a kernel and initrd with a text editor which boots in a few seconds and drops to let you mount, edit and reboot the system with the new configuration. I had an idea once to bring up a teensy tiny Linux kernel that let users do that, and even set other options (basically an efika.forth installer, sort of like a BIOS utility you'd run.. I remember this sort of thing from a lot of Compaq servers, you had to boot a CD to get to the configuration of many server BIOS parameters)

Editing scripts inside firmware could be possible but in the end allowing write access to disks inside firmware is an opportunity for trouble, and damage.

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Matt Sealey