Re: [PATCH] Elf loader fixes

[Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>]

Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>>>The elf kernel loader certainly doesn't look like it cares much
>>>about virtual address (other than VIRT_BASE) ...
>>
>>Correct. And the same applies to boot loaders.
> 
> 
> Well, the difference between xen and other boot loaders is that xen
> boots the kernel with paging already enabled ...

actually, there have historically been a ton of boot loaders that boot 
with paging already enabled: just go back to the early Suns; part of the 
task of SunOS was to move the firmware's page tables to kernel space and 
use them until it could build its own.

I hit this when I ported sunos to a machine with firmware that did not 
set up page tables.

it's been very common, in the non-PC world, to have paging turned on 
very early.

Just a historical comment of no value to this discussion :-)

ron