Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc.

Jerry A Gilliam

Shudong Zhou

Cynthia A McGuire

David A Butterfield

Christopher Horne

Yonghong Lai

John H Danielson

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses filesystem operations to initiate device naming and/or device discovery. The system operates by receiving a command to boot a computer system. In response to the command, the system loads a portion of a filesystem hierarchy that includes a device namespace into a memory of the computer system, wherein the portion of the filesystem hierarchy contains at least one entity which represents a device coupled to the computer system. The system can then perform a read-directory operation on the portion of the filesystem hierarchy or a lookup operation of a specific well-known device or directory to obtain a list of filesystem entities that correspond to devices attached to the computer system.

Method and apparatus for using filesystem operations to initiate device naming

An automated method of establishing a filesystem utilizing the establishment of a first filesystem that interfaces with devices by loading software, including a first set of drivers, into memory and initializing the first set of drivers with the devices. The first filesystem is then mounted on a root directory that comprises a single storage device. The method allows input/output functionality within the first filesystem and, while input/output functionality is available to the first filesystem, the method accesses the single storage device to obtain software, including a second set of drivers. The method loads the software into the memory and initializes the second set of drivers with the devices to establish a second filesystem. The second filesystem is mounted on a root directory comprising the single storage device and another storage device and the first filesystem is then rendered inactive.

Method and system for filesystem mounted on a root directory wherein data is redirected from a first storage system to a second storage system

A kernel device file system publication system for dynamically enumerating and configuring an instance of a device in the kernel device tree upon request by a user level application. The kernel device file system logically arranges system level devices in a hierarchical tree-like topology defining devices as nodes of a device tree to allow for a top-down access. The top-down access allows devices connecting to the computer system to be configured based on the physical path of the device. This process starts at a bus nexus and drives device configuration down the device tree. The bus configuration interfaces permit each nexus in the device tree hierarchy to participate in the device lookup and readdirs operations performed by the device file system. The device file system path operations are performed as an iterative sequence of bus configure operations, whereby each nexus controls the enumeration and configuration of that nexus' children.

Bus specific device enumeration system and method

An event subscription and publication system for dynamically notifying user level applications of kernel level events. The kernel level events may include hardware and software events as well as system level errors that occur in the kernel. User level applications that need information on these kernel level events subscribe to the event monitoring and publication framework of the present invention and are notified of these kernel level events when they occur. Upon notification of an event, the user application also is provided with specific information classifying the nature and details of the event. The kernel event monitoring and publication system of the present invention allows user level applications to be dynamically notified of kernel level events without requiring the user level application to interrupt the normal processing states to identify these events when the events occur.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Jerry A Gilliam