Re: [Linux-ia64] Problem with elilo 3.3a

[Stephane Eranian <eranian@frankl.hpl.hp.com>]

David,

On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 11:09:03PM -0800, David Mosberger wrote:
> >>>>> On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 22:58:53 -0800, Stephane Eranian <eranian@frankl.hpl.hp.com> said:
> 
>   Stephane> Note that the memory map itself IS NOT allocated inside
>   Stephane> the boot_param structure. This structure only contains a
>   Stephane> pointer to it as well as the size of the region. The map
>   Stephane> is dynamically allocated (in util.c).  The kernel
>   Stephane> (arch/ia64/kernel/setup.c) assumes all "valid" memory
>   Stephane> regions are free except for regions it knows about which
>   Stephane> are: - the boot param struct - the memory map (address in
>   Stephane> size in boot param struct) - initrd - command line string
>   Stephane> - kernel code and data
> 
> That's not good.  The kernel assumes that the efi_memmap was copied
> and happily scribbles over it.  I thought the bootloader used to make
> a copy of the mem-map.  Am I misremembering?
> 
Let me clarify this. 

The bootloader obtains the memory map from EFI. The map is stored into a 
region specifically allocated by elilo. The bootparam structure passes 
the address of the table and its size to the kernel.

Looking at setup.c, when the kernel initializes the bootmem by
walking the EFI map, it makes sure to skip over the 5 or so regions I mentioned
(see free_available_memory). So the memory map region is preserved, i.e., not
included in the pool of free memory.


-- 
-Stephane