Re: [PATCH 0/3] x86_64 EFI runtime service support

Huang, Ying
2007-08-20T05:14:31Z

On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 16:25 -0600, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> "Huang, Ying" <ying.huang@intel.com> writes:
> >> > +#define EFI_LOADER_SIG ((unsigned char *)(PARAM+0x1c0))
> >> > +#define EFI_MEMDESC_SIZE (*((unsigned int *) (PARAM+0x1c4)))
> >> > +#define EFI_MEMDESC_VERSION (*((unsigned int *) (PARAM+0x1c8)))
> >> > +#define EFI_MEMMAP_SIZE (*((unsigned int *) (PARAM+0x1cc)))
> >> > +#define EFI_MEMMAP (*((unsigned long *)(PARAM+0x1d0)))
> >> > +#define EFI_SYSTAB (*((unsigned long *)(PARAM+0x1d8)))
> >> > #define MOUNT_ROOT_RDONLY (*(unsigned short *) (PARAM+0x1F2))
> Be very very very careful how you talk about this.
>
> I have seen machines in the wild a 64bit processor and a 32bit EFI.
> So this is not a linux architecture issue, or a cpu architecture
> issue. This is an EFI architecture issue.
>
> This is an issue of do you have a 32bit or a 64bit EFI implementation
> on your machine. Which is very different.
>
> We should be able to boot a 32bit kernel with a 64bit EFI.
> We should be able to boot a 64bit kernel with a 32bit EFI.
>
> Maybe our response is to ignore the information from elilo so
> we don't attempt EFI runtime calls but the boot information should
> be unambiguous.
>
> So we need to be able to look at the data and answer these questions.
> - Is EFI present?
> - Is EFI 32bit?
> - Is EFI 64bit?

Yes, it is necessary to distinguish these situations. I think the
EFI_LOADER_SIG defined above can be used for that. For example the
following signature can be defined:

32-bit EFI EL32
64-bit EFI EL64

All other values will be treated as no EFI present.

If struct setup_data proposed by H. Peter Anvin is used for EFI
information passed from bootloader, two "type" can be defined for 32-bit
EFI and 64-bit EFI, such as SETUP_DATA_TYPE_EFI_32 and
SETUP_DATA_TYPE_EFI64. If either type is not presented in "linked list
of struct setup_data", it is considered that EFI is not present.

Best Regards,
Huang Ying