[OLPC-devel] Re: belt and suspenders...

[Ronald G Minnich]

Jim Gettys wrote:
> The following went through my mind this morning:
> 1) first line of defense is idiot proof flash update utility, per the
> message I sent out some weeks ago.
> 2) Here's the question: is it feasible to checksum the Linux as
> Bootloader image in the flash, and if it is corrupted, do a direct boot
> off of a USB device or jffs2 image instead as a means of recovery?
> 
> I have no clue if this idea is worth the bits of this mail message, but
> I thought I should ask, on the "boy, Jim can be paranoid" theory ;-).


I think embedding a usb stack in linuxbios would eat us alive. jffs2, 
maybe. But if the linux checksum is bad, you're in so much trouble that 
I'm not sure you can live.

ron