From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 8 Sep 2001 04:54:25 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 8 Sep 2001 04:54:15 -0400 Received: from imo-d08.mx.aol.com ([205.188.157.40]:23504 "EHLO imo-d08.mx.aol.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 8 Sep 2001 04:54:02 -0400 From: Floydsmith@aol.com Message-ID: <109.548ddae.28cb3697@aol.com> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 04:53:43 EDT Subject: Re1: LOADLIN and 2.4 kernels To: hpa@transmeta.com CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Floydsmith@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 14 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org >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,