XML boot sequence??

XML boot sequence??

• Penicillin

  well i definetly had no plans of editing my EPROM at this poin, but my MBR yes. i want to test a method of driver verifacation, and implementation.
  
  
  query hardware > save to hardwareprofile
  serch for nearest http, ftp, ssh, ect.. Ddb ( Driver database )
  secure connect
  query Ddb
  verify drivers in Ddb
  match harwareprofile
  return
  load drivers colleted
  verify successful driver load
  start system.
  
  ofcource there are options for if the drivers ae most current or not, and if the download becomes corrupt the system can change Ddb.
  this is just an idea i had. is it possible.. I believe so.. in fact i am setting up a workstation and Ddb server to test it.
  
  

• LTR

  I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.   Can you expand on your scenario or your question
  
  Thanks,
  -mike
  

• Laurence Starks MSFT

  XML is just a document representation.  XML by itself will not do anything.  XML can be used to store data/information.  It is perfectly reasonable to use XML to store information for a bootstrap, but it is not possible for XML to do this on it's own.
  
  

• Jerrie Pelser

  Yeah.  It's true, anything is possible.  Xml is not but a simple method of representing data.  Its structural way of representing data came to be very useful in so many scenarios.  
  

• Gary_MN

  Sure anything's possible by I guess my question would be why When you think about it, the catalyst for a computers boot sequence is the CMOS which is stored on a EPROM on your motherboard. It's ultimately responsible for logically "hooking" the seperate components in your computer together and determining what needs to happen next. Whats written to an EPROM are actually bit specific instructions and attempting to represent that as an xml infoset of some kind is pretty meaning less because you'd have two routes; 1) load the xml into some sort of DOM or streaming construct and that obviously requires a toolest 2) parse the xml infoset on your own and retrieve the necessary instrucitons and with that scenario whats the point.
  
  As for initializing and loading an operating system, well thats pretty much predicated by the master boot record (MBR) and storing that as an xml infoset would be silly at this point and create a mess in terms of backward compatability.
  
  The only scenario it would work in is for OS config files (like boot.ini) and even thats silly because those files are used by the OS boot loader and a toolset for working with a xml config file would be neccessary and simply over kill.
  
  So to sum it up, while it's possible, it isn't very practical.
  
  - James
  
  
• XML boot sequence??