Re: Change of TEXT_OFFSET for multi_v7_defconfig

[Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:53:07AM +0100, Daniel Thompson wrote:
> On 17/04/14 22:35, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
> > On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 04:18:45PM -0500, Rob Herring wrote:
> >> The problem here is more than just the TEXT_OFFSET changed. From what
> >> I've heard, there are some QC chips which need much more reserved RAM
> >> than the 2MB discussed here. Changing the TEXT_OFFSET is a hack that
> >> doesn't scale.
> > 
> > You may think it's a hack, but we really can't get around this.  There
> > really are platforms out there where we must do this kind of stuff.  I
> > invite you next time you meet up to talk to Michal Simek.  There's no
> > way they can load the kernel at 32K into RAM.
> 
> After reading this thread I have noticed that the sort order for the
> textofs part of this makefile is numeric (based on textofs) rather than
> alphabetic.

Correct.

> Is this an intentional mechanism? Certainly the result of numeric
> sorting is that the kernel will rise to the highest point in memory that
> suits all enabled platforms (based on the assumption that platforms are
> much more likely to reserve memory right at the start of RAM than
> slightly offset into it).

Also correct.

> If so would you welcome a comment only patch explaining this?

If you're willing to provide one.

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