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From: David Daney <ddaney.cavm@gmail.com>
To: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
Cc: linux-mips@linux-mips.org, Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
Subject: Re: Single MIPS kernel
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:56:05 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5447EFB5.4090009@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20141022083437.GB18581@linux-mips.org>

On 10/22/2014 01:34 AM, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> This question comes up every once in a while and I've also been approached
> during ELCE in Düsseldorf why there is no single MIPS kernel for all
> platforms, so I thought I should post a writeup on the topic.
>
> The primary reason is that MIPS kernels are using non-PIC kernels.  This
> means code is linked to a particular absolute address.  The link address
> depends on the memory range available on a particular system's available
> memory range - there is no one size that fits all systems, not even a
> large fraction of supported systems.
>

Another reason is that the protocol between the bootloader and the 
kernel varies by platform.  So you would have to have several different 
entry points, one for each booting protocol.

I am not sure how the bootloaders would know which entry point to use.

David Daney

  parent reply	other threads:[~2014-10-22 17:56 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-10-22  8:34 Single MIPS kernel Ralf Baechle
2014-10-22 10:53 ` John Crispin
2014-10-22 17:36   ` Florian Fainelli
2014-10-22 17:56 ` David Daney [this message]
2014-10-22 19:05   ` Ralf Baechle
2014-10-22 19:19     ` Maciej W. Rozycki
2014-10-22 20:42       ` Ralf Baechle
2014-10-22 21:10         ` David Daney
2014-10-22 21:53         ` James Hogan
2014-10-22 21:53           ` James Hogan
2014-10-22 22:18           ` David Daney
2014-10-22 18:03 ` David Daney
2014-10-22 19:20   ` Ralf Baechle
2014-10-22 22:15     ` Ben Hutchings
2014-10-22 23:22       ` Ralf Baechle
2014-10-23  1:02         ` Ben Hutchings
2014-10-23  3:13           ` Joshua Kinard

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