public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Floydsmith@aol.com
To: hpa@transmeta.com
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Floydsmith@aol.com
Subject: Re1: LOADLIN and 2.4 kernels
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 04:53:43 EDT	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <109.548ddae.28cb3697@aol.com> (raw)


>Hi everyone,
>
>I got a bug report of LOADLIN not working with recent -ac kernels, and
>thought it might have something to do with my recent A20 changes that
>were added to -ac.  However, in trying to reproduce this bug, I have
>been completely unable to boot *any* 2.4 kernel with LOADLIN-1.6, trying
>this from Win98 DOS mode.
>
>Anyone have any insight into this?  I really don't understand how the
>A20 changes could affect LOADLIN, and it's starting to look to me that
>there is some other problem going on...
>
>        -hpa

You do not specify exactly what your problem is (error message, where, etc.) 
so I am not sure I can help you or not. I had a problem with 2.2x kernels 
booting but not any 2.4.x ones with loadlin but only when "initrd" (ramdisk 
as "root" filesystem) was used. The symptom was the kernel would attempt to 
load but a insuficient memory error (I think it said you must have at least 
4MB) then it would hang. If you have this problem and if you exactly 64MB of 
ram, then what seems to happen is loadlin probes for and finds the correct 
amount of memory. Then it loads the 2.4.x kernel into a buffer. The kernel 
then attempts boot just the "boot" sector stuff. This again probes for the 
total amount of system ram (64MB). But, because of the much greater size of 
2.4.x kernels some memory location that himem uses (I think - maybe BIOS 
though) in relation to "memory size determination" gets over wiritten when 
loadlin filed the "buffer". The only workaround I have found so far for this 
is to pass on the loadlin command line the extra "boot param" of:
    mem=64M
so that the kernel does not probe.

Floyd,

             reply	other threads:[~2001-09-08  8:54 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2001-09-08  8:53 Floydsmith [this message]
2001-09-08  9:21 ` Re1: LOADLIN and 2.4 kernels Nicholas Knight

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=109.548ddae.28cb3697@aol.com \
    --to=floydsmith@aol.com \
    --cc=hpa@transmeta.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox