Re: [PATCH 12/12] i386 boot: Add an ELF header to bzImage

H. Peter Anvin
2006-10-04T20:28:39Z

Vivek Goyal wrote:
>
> Eric/Peter,
>
> How about just extending bzImage format to include some info in real mode
> kernel header. Say protocol version 2.05. I think if we just include two
> more fields, is kernel relocatable and equivalent of ELF memsz, then probably
> this information should be enough for kexec bzImage loader to load and run
> a relocatable kernel from a different address.
>

What would be the exact semantics of the "equivalent of ELF memsz"? I
have balked on that one in the past, because the proposed semantics were
unsafe.

I suspect we need at least one more piece of data, which is the required
alignment of a relocated kernel. Either which way, it seems clear that
there is some re-engineering that needs to be done, and I think we need
to better understand *why* the proposed patch failed.

Can this failure be reproduced in a simulator?

-hpa