Re: [PATCH] x86, boot: Allow 64bit EFI kernel to be loaded above 4G

[Matt Fleming <matt-mF/unelCI9GS6iBeEJttW/XRex20P6io@public.gmane.org>]

On Mon, 09 Feb, at 12:23:15PM, Yinghai Lu wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 10:27 AM, Matt Fleming <matt-mF/unelCI9GS6iBeEJttW/XRex20P6io@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On Tue, 03 Feb, at 06:03:20PM, Yinghai Lu wrote:
> >
> > The first thing that comes to mind is the issues we experienced last
> > year when adding support for loading initrds above 4GB to the EFI boot
> > stub, c.f. commit 47226ad4f4cf ("x86/efi: Only load initrd above 4g on
> > second try").
> >
> > Are things going to work correctly this time?
> 
> That should be addressed the grub2.
 
I vaguely remember thinking that the issue was only experienced when
using the EFI_FILE protocol, which grub2 doesn't use. So the grub
developers may be OK, but we should at least give them a heads up.

> I was thinking that we may need to add mem_limit command together with
> linuxefi and initrdefi.
> or add linuxefi64/initrdefi64?
 
No, we definitely do not want to add any more grub commands.

> BTW, I tested loading kernel above grub2 on
> virutalbox, qemu/kvm/OVMF, and real servers (ami ...) all work without problem.
> 
> wonder if we need have one black list for 64bit UEFI that does not
> support access
> memory above 4G.
 
We have been successful, so far, in not introducing these kind of
blacklists. It would be a shame to start now.

-- 
Matt Fleming, Intel Open Source Technology Center