Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Andries.Brouwer]

    From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>

    > Unfortunately, I need to use zImage on my Tecra.  I know that zImage is
    > old, and I've heard that support for it will eventually be withdrawn,
    > but I don't really have much alternative right now unless there is
    > a patch which works around the Tecra's buggy A20 handling.

    Oh, by the way, the "I need to use zImage on my Tecra" thing is making
    it work by the use of voodoo.  It's rather unfortunate it worked on
    some systems -- it's going to fail randomly on you anyway; it's just a
    matter of which way the timings and cache items get jerked around.

    I have asked Alan for more details on the workaround, but perhaps the
    thing to do is to backport the latest 2.4 A20 code back to 2.2 and see
    if that solves the *real* problem, so bzImage works.

    I don't think there is any reason to believe zImage doesn't work
    unless bzImage works on your system.

I my A20 writeup (http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/A20.html) I wrote:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jens Maurer reported in 1996 on boot problems with a bzImage kernel: 

    On the Toshiba laptop, the first two bytes at 0x100000 are incorrect
    and identical to those from address 0x000000 (which was an alias for
    0x100000 before the A20 gate enable). At a second read from 0x100000
    immediately afterwards, the correct memory content is returned.
    Asus P55TP5XE boards (Triton I chipset) show quite the same problem,
    but there, only the first byte is incorrect and booting bzImage kernels
    works fine. To me, this looks like some buffer or cache coherency
    problem although I think that caches are organized in at least 16
    byte cache lines. ... This exact same problem reportedly also exists
    on Fujitsu 555T (report from Andrea Caltroni) laptop and Compudyne
    Pentium 60 (report from David Kerr) desktop computers. 

He gives a patch, and adds "Unfortunately, Philip Hands reports that
the above patch makes some people with other non-laptop computers unable
to boot." 

Using zImage instead of bzImage avoids the problem (since zImage is not
loaded high). Debian has distributed special Tecra boot floppies for a while.
Later it was found out that these laptops just have an incredibly slow
keyboard controller and that all is fine with a larger timeout. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is this inaccurate?

Andries

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote:

> 
> I my A20 writeup (http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/A20.html) I wrote:
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jens Maurer reported in 1996 on boot problems with a bzImage kernel: 
> 
>     On the Toshiba laptop, the first two bytes at 0x100000 are incorrect
>     and identical to those from address 0x000000 (which was an alias for
>     0x100000 before the A20 gate enable). At a second read from 0x100000
>     immediately afterwards, the correct memory content is returned.
>     Asus P55TP5XE boards (Triton I chipset) show quite the same problem,
>     but there, only the first byte is incorrect and booting bzImage kernels
>     works fine. To me, this looks like some buffer or cache coherency
>     problem although I think that caches are organized in at least 16
>     byte cache lines. ... This exact same problem reportedly also exists
>     on Fujitsu 555T (report from Andrea Caltroni) laptop and Compudyne
>     Pentium 60 (report from David Kerr) desktop computers. 
> 
> He gives a patch, and adds "Unfortunately, Philip Hands reports that
> the above patch makes some people with other non-laptop computers unable
> to boot." 
> 
> Using zImage instead of bzImage avoids the problem (since zImage is not
> loaded high). Debian has distributed special Tecra boot floppies for a while.
> Later it was found out that these laptops just have an incredibly slow
> keyboard controller and that all is fine with a larger timeout. 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Is this inaccurate?
> 


No, it's consistent with my information; the point is that the 
workaround for these laptops have existed for a long time... the timeout 
applied in current kernels is positively glacial.

	-hpa

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Alan Cox]

> He gives a patch, and adds "Unfortunately, Philip Hands reports that
> the above patch makes some people with other non-laptop computers unable
> to boot." 

Does anyone have the patch to look at ?

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Andries.Brouwer]

> Does anyone have the patch to look at ?

See http://www.cck.uni-kl.de/misc/tecra710/toshiba-small.diff

Andries

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote:

>>Does anyone have the patch to look at ?
>>
> 
> See http://www.cck.uni-kl.de/misc/tecra710/toshiba-small.diff
> 
> Andries
> 

Okay, now we have a model number: Toshiba Tecra 710CDT; I think I can 
actually get my hands on one if need be (we have one floating around 
TMTA I believe.)

I'm fairly certain the code as it exists is good.  If not, I would 
rather like to add a WBINVD (which needs to be patched 
out/conditionalized on i386, sigh) in between the low write and high 
read in the A20 wait loop.

	-hpa

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote:

>>Does anyone have the patch to look at ?
>>
> 
> See http://www.cck.uni-kl.de/misc/tecra710/toshiba-small.diff
> 
> Andries
> 

Also, I would *really* like to find out if the machines that have this 
pathology honours INT 15h, AX=2401h, in which case no external 
workaround should be necessary with the current 2.4 A20 code.

	-hpa

zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Roy Hills]

I'm using linux kernel 2.2.20 on my systems.  This works fine as a
bzImage which most of my systems use, however one of my systems
(a Toshiba Tecra laptop) needs to use zImage, and I find that 2.2.20
does not work in this case, although previous versions e.g. 2.2.17 do.

When I look at the kernels with "file", I notice that the 2.2.20 kernel doesn't
report zImage/bzImage like the older kernels did.  2.2.20 also omits the
system that it was built on and the build date. E.g:

$ file /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.*
/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.19:     Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 
2.2.19
  (root@mercury) #7 Fri No, RO-rootFS, root_dev=0x301, Normal VGA
/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.20:     Linux kernel x86 boot executable RO-rootFS, 
root_dev=0x3
01, Normal VGA

$ file --version
file-3.27
magic data from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic

I'm running Debian GNU/Linux 2.2r4 (potato) using monolithic kernels compiled
from source.

Is this the end of zImage support, or is there something else different 
about the
2.2.20 boot loading process that might be tickling the buggy hardware in my 
Tecra?

Regards,

Roy Hills
--
Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
14 Ashford House, Beaufort Court,
Medway City Estate,                          Email: Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com
Rochester, Kent ME2 4FA, UK                  WWW:   http://www.nta-monitor.com/

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Matthias Andree]

On Fri, 28 Dec 2001, Roy Hills wrote:

> I'm using linux kernel 2.2.20 on my systems.  This works fine as a
> bzImage which most of my systems use, however one of my systems
> (a Toshiba Tecra laptop) needs to use zImage, and I find that 2.2.20
> does not work in this case, although previous versions e.g. 2.2.17 do.

Did your kernel grow (configuration change)? zImage has tighter size
limits than bzImage. Did you actually make zImage or did you just to
make? The (b)zImage is in arch/i386/boot/

-- 
Matthias Andree

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Roy Hills]

At 13:12 28/12/01 +0100, Matthias Andree wrote:
>On Fri, 28 Dec 2001, Roy Hills wrote:
>
> > I'm using linux kernel 2.2.20 on my systems.  This works fine as a
> > bzImage which most of my systems use, however one of my systems
> > (a Toshiba Tecra laptop) needs to use zImage, and I find that 2.2.20
> > does not work in this case, although previous versions e.g. 2.2.17 do.
>
>Did your kernel grow (configuration change)? zImage has tighter size
>limits than bzImage. Did you actually make zImage or did you just to
>make? The (b)zImage is in arch/i386/boot/

I didn't make any significant configuration changes.  I ran "make oldconfig"
against my .config file for the tecra, and answered "n" to most of the new
questions (the only exception being "CONFIG_TOSHIBA" which I set to "y"
because that seemed the right thing to do).

My sequence of commands was:

make oldconfig
make dep
make clean
make zImage
scp arch/i386/boot/zImage <target-kernel>
scp System.map <target-sysmap>

Note that I build the kernels on a separate machine, hence the "scp" to
copy the kernel & sysmap to the target system.

The old 2.2.17 zImage kernel that runs fine has a filesize of 462060 bytes and
reports 784k kernel code, 412k reserved, 1168k data, 36k init.

The new 2.2.20 zImage kernel that fails has a filesize of 482795 bytes.
Actual sizes are not known as the system fails with "out of memory" just
after the decompression of the kernel and before any kernel messages get 
printed.

Just to eliminate the minor increase in size, I built a minimal 2.2.20 zImage
kernel by eliminating all networking and just about everything else not needed
to boot the system.  This minimal kernel had a filesize of 327534 bytes and
failed in exactly the same way with "out of memory" just after decompression.
Also, whenever a kernel has been too big for zImage in the past, the "make 
zImage"
has failed with a sensible error message.  This time, the make succeeded every
time.  I'm therefore pretty sure that it's not purely a size issue.

Note that the actual problem with Toshiba tecra laptops and bzImage files is
a known hardware problem (something to do with the A20 line).  I'm not trying
to address this problem, just why the normal workaround (use zImage rather
than bzImage to keep in conventional memory) doesn't work any more with
2.2.20.

FYI, here are the kernel config files for 2.2.17 (which works fine) and 
2.2.20 (which
doesn't).  I doubt that they'll help, but I've included them just in case.

1.  2.2.17 working .config

#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
#

#
# Code maturity level options
#
# CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL is not set

#
# Processor type and features
#
# CONFIG_M386 is not set
# CONFIG_M486 is not set
CONFIG_M586=y
# CONFIG_M586TSC is not set
# CONFIG_M686 is not set
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
CONFIG_1GB=y
# CONFIG_2GB is not set
# CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION is not set
# CONFIG_MTRR is not set
# CONFIG_SMP is not set

#
# Loadable module support
#
CONFIG_MODULES=y
CONFIG_MODVERSIONS=y
# CONFIG_KMOD is not set

#
# General setup
#
CONFIG_NET=y
CONFIG_PCI=y
# CONFIG_PCI_GOBIOS is not set
# CONFIG_PCI_GODIRECT is not set
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
# CONFIG_PCI_QUIRKS is not set
# CONFIG_PCI_OLD_PROC is not set
# CONFIG_MCA is not set
# CONFIG_VISWS is not set
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
# CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT is not set
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
# CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT is not set
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
# CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC is not set
# CONFIG_PARPORT is not set
CONFIG_APM=y
# CONFIG_APM_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT is not set
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_SUSPEND_BOUNCE is not set
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
# CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS is not set
# CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF is not set

#
# Plug and Play support
#
# CONFIG_PNP is not set

#
# Block devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y

#
# Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE drives
#
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD_IDE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDETAPE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RZ1000 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS is not set

#
# Additional Block Devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NBD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_MD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_XD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DAC960 is not set
CONFIG_PARIDE_PARPORT=y
# CONFIG_PARIDE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_CPQ_DA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD is not set

#
# Networking options
#
CONFIG_PACKET=y
# CONFIG_NETLINK is not set
# CONFIG_FIREWALL is not set
# CONFIG_FILTER is not set
CONFIG_UNIX=y
CONFIG_INET=y
# CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST is not set
# CONFIG_IP_ADVANCED_ROUTER is not set
# CONFIG_IP_PNP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_ROUTER is not set
# CONFIG_NET_IPIP is not set
# CONFIG_NET_IPGRE is not set
CONFIG_IP_ALIAS=y
# CONFIG_SYN_COOKIES is not set

#
# (it is safe to leave these untouched)
#
# CONFIG_INET_RARP is not set
CONFIG_SKB_LARGE=y

#
#
#
# CONFIG_IPX is not set
# CONFIG_ATALK is not set

#
# Telephony Support
#
# CONFIG_PHONE is not set
# CONFIG_PHONE_IXJ is not set

#
# SCSI support
#
# CONFIG_SCSI is not set

#
# I2O device support
#
# CONFIG_I2O is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_PCI is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_BLOCK is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_SCSI is not set

#
# Network device support
#
CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y

#
# ARCnet devices
#
# CONFIG_ARCNET is not set
# CONFIG_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_BONDING is not set
# CONFIG_EQUALIZER is not set
# CONFIG_NET_SB1000 is not set

#
# Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)
#
CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_3COM is not set
# CONFIG_LANCE is not set
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_SMC is not set
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_RACAL is not set
# CONFIG_NET_ISA is not set
# CONFIG_NET_EISA is not set
# CONFIG_NET_POCKET is not set

#
# Ethernet (1000 Mbit)
#
# CONFIG_SK98LIN is not set
# CONFIG_FDDI is not set
CONFIG_PPP=y

#
# CCP compressors for PPP are only built as modules.
#
CONFIG_SLIP=y
# CONFIG_SLIP_COMPRESSED is not set
# CONFIG_SLIP_SMART is not set
# CONFIG_SLIP_MODE_SLIP6 is not set
# CONFIG_NET_RADIO is not set

#
# Token ring devices
#
CONFIG_TR=y
# CONFIG_IBMTR is not set
# CONFIG_IBMLS is not set
# CONFIG_IBMOL is not set
# CONFIG_SKTR is not set
# CONFIG_NET_FC is not set

#
# Wan interfaces
#
# CONFIG_HOSTESS_SV11 is not set
# CONFIG_COSA is not set
# CONFIG_SEALEVEL_4021 is not set
# CONFIG_SYNCLINK_SYNCPPP is not set
# CONFIG_LANMEDIA is not set
# CONFIG_COMX is not set
# CONFIG_DLCI is not set
# CONFIG_WAN_DRIVERS is not set
# CONFIG_SBNI is not set

#
# Amateur Radio support
#
# CONFIG_HAMRADIO is not set

#
# IrDA (infrared) support
#
CONFIG_IRDA=m

#
# IrDA protocols
#
CONFIG_IRLAN=m
CONFIG_IRCOMM=m
# CONFIG_IRDA_ULTRA is not set
# CONFIG_IRDA_OPTIONS is not set
# CONFIG_IRDA_COMPRESSION is not set

#
# Infrared-port device drivers
#

#
# SIR device drivers
#
CONFIG_IRTTY_SIR=m
CONFIG_IRPORT_SIR=m

#
# FIR device drivers
#
# CONFIG_NSC_FIR is not set
# CONFIG_WINBOND_FIR is not set
CONFIG_TOSHIBA_FIR=m

#
# Dongle support
#
# CONFIG_DONGLE is not set

#
# ISDN subsystem
#
# CONFIG_ISDN is not set

#
# Old CD-ROM drivers (not SCSI, not IDE)
#
# CONFIG_CD_NO_IDESCSI is not set

#
# Character devices
#
CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
# CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_EXTENDED is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD is not set
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTY_COUNT=256
CONFIG_MOUSE=y

#
# Mice
#
# CONFIG_ATIXL_BUSMOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_BUSMOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_MS_BUSMOUSE is not set
CONFIG_PSMOUSE=y
# CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_PC110_PAD is not set

#
# Joysticks
#
# CONFIG_JOYSTICK is not set
# CONFIG_QIC02_TAPE is not set
# CONFIG_WATCHDOG is not set
# CONFIG_NVRAM is not set
CONFIG_RTC=y

#
# Video For Linux
#
# CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV is not set
# CONFIG_DTLK is not set

#
# Ftape, the floppy tape device driver
#
# CONFIG_FTAPE is not set

#
# Filesystems
#
# CONFIG_QUOTA is not set
# CONFIG_AUTOFS_FS is not set
# CONFIG_AFFS_FS is not set
# CONFIG_HFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y
# CONFIG_UMSDOS_FS is not set
CONFIG_VFAT_FS=y
CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y
CONFIG_JOLIET=y
CONFIG_MINIX_FS=m
CONFIG_NTFS_FS=m
# CONFIG_HPFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS=y
# CONFIG_ROMFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
# CONFIG_SYSV_FS is not set
# CONFIG_UFS_FS is not set

#
# Network File Systems
#
# CONFIG_CODA_FS is not set
CONFIG_NFS_FS=m
CONFIG_SUNRPC=m
CONFIG_LOCKD=m
# CONFIG_SMB_FS is not set
# CONFIG_NCP_FS is not set

#
# Partition Types
#
# CONFIG_BSD_DISKLABEL is not set
# CONFIG_MAC_PARTITION is not set
# CONFIG_SMD_DISKLABEL is not set
# CONFIG_SOLARIS_X86_PARTITION is not set
CONFIG_NLS=y

#
# Native Language Support
#
CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="cp437"
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_437 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_737 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_775 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_850 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_852 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_855 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_857 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_860 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_861 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_862 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_863 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_864 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_865 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_866 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_869 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_874 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_932 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_936 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_949 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_950 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_1 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_2 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_3 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_4 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_5 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_6 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_7 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_8 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_9 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_14 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_15 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_KOI8_R is not set

#
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y

#
# Sound
#
# CONFIG_SOUND is not set

#
# Kernel hacking
#
# CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ is not set

2.  2.2.20 non-working .config

#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
#
CONFIG_X86=y

#
# Code maturity level options
#
# CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL is not set

#
# Processor type and features
#
# CONFIG_M386 is not set
# CONFIG_M486 is not set
CONFIG_M586=y
# CONFIG_M586TSC is not set
# CONFIG_M686 is not set
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
# CONFIG_MICROCODE is not set
# CONFIG_X86_MSR is not set
# CONFIG_X86_CPUID is not set
CONFIG_1GB=y
# CONFIG_2GB is not set
# CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION is not set
# CONFIG_MTRR is not set
# CONFIG_SMP is not set

#
# Loadable module support
#
CONFIG_MODULES=y
# CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is not set
# CONFIG_KMOD is not set

#
# General setup
#
CONFIG_NET=y
CONFIG_PCI=y
# CONFIG_PCI_GOBIOS is not set
# CONFIG_PCI_GODIRECT is not set
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
# CONFIG_PCI_QUIRKS is not set
# CONFIG_PCI_OLD_PROC is not set
# CONFIG_MCA is not set
# CONFIG_VISWS is not set
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
# CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT is not set
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
# CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT is not set
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
# CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC is not set
# CONFIG_PARPORT is not set
CONFIG_APM=y
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
# CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS is not set
# CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF is not set
CONFIG_TOSHIBA=y

#
# Plug and Play support
#
# CONFIG_PNP is not set

#
# Block devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y

#
# Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE drives
#
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD_IDE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDETAPE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RZ1000 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS is not set

#
# Additional Block Devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=m
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NBD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_MD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_XD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DAC960 is not set
CONFIG_PARIDE_PARPORT=y
# CONFIG_PARIDE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_CPQ_DA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_CPQ_CISS_DA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD is not set

#
# Networking options
#
CONFIG_PACKET=y
# CONFIG_NETLINK is not set
# CONFIG_FIREWALL is not set
# CONFIG_FILTER is not set
CONFIG_UNIX=y
CONFIG_INET=y
# CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST is not set
# CONFIG_IP_ADVANCED_ROUTER is not set
# CONFIG_IP_PNP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_ROUTER is not set
# CONFIG_NET_IPIP is not set
# CONFIG_NET_IPGRE is not set
# CONFIG_IP_ALIAS is not set
# CONFIG_SYN_COOKIES is not set

#
# (it is safe to leave these untouched)
#
# CONFIG_INET_RARP is not set
CONFIG_SKB_LARGE=y

#
#
#
# CONFIG_IPX is not set
# CONFIG_ATALK is not set

#
# QoS and/or fair queueing
#
# CONFIG_NET_SCHED is not set

#
# Telephony Support
#
# CONFIG_PHONE is not set
# CONFIG_PHONE_IXJ is not set

#
# SCSI support
#
# CONFIG_SCSI is not set

#
# I2O device support
#
# CONFIG_I2O is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_PCI is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_BLOCK is not set
# CONFIG_I2O_SCSI is not set

#
# Network device support
#
CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y

#
# ARCnet devices
#
# CONFIG_ARCNET is not set
# CONFIG_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_BONDING is not set
# CONFIG_EQUALIZER is not set
# CONFIG_NET_SB1000 is not set

#
# Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)
#
CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_3COM is not set
# CONFIG_LANCE is not set
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_SMC is not set
# CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_RACAL is not set
# CONFIG_NET_ISA is not set
# CONFIG_NET_EISA is not set
# CONFIG_NET_POCKET is not set

#
# Ethernet (1000 Mbit)
#
# CONFIG_SK98LIN is not set
# CONFIG_FDDI is not set
CONFIG_PPP=y

#
# CCP compressors for PPP will also be built in.
#
# CONFIG_SLIP is not set
# CONFIG_NET_RADIO is not set

#
# Token ring devices
#
CONFIG_TR=y
# CONFIG_IBMTR is not set
# CONFIG_IBMLS is not set
# CONFIG_IBMOL is not set
# CONFIG_SKTR is not set
# CONFIG_NET_FC is not set

#
# Wan interfaces
#
# CONFIG_HOSTESS_SV11 is not set
# CONFIG_COSA is not set
# CONFIG_SEALEVEL_4021 is not set
# CONFIG_SYNCLINK_SYNCPPP is not set
# CONFIG_LANMEDIA is not set
# CONFIG_COMX is not set
# CONFIG_DLCI is not set
# CONFIG_XPEED is not set
# CONFIG_SBNI is not set

#
# Amateur Radio support
#
# CONFIG_HAMRADIO is not set

#
# IrDA (infrared) support
#
# CONFIG_IRDA is not set

#
# ISDN subsystem
#
# CONFIG_ISDN is not set

#
# Old CD-ROM drivers (not SCSI, not IDE)
#
# CONFIG_CD_NO_IDESCSI is not set

#
# Character devices
#
CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
# CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_EXTENDED is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD is not set
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTY_COUNT=256
CONFIG_MOUSE=y

#
# Mice
#
# CONFIG_ATIXL_BUSMOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_BUSMOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_MS_BUSMOUSE is not set
CONFIG_PSMOUSE=y
# CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_PC110_PAD is not set

#
# Joysticks
#
# CONFIG_JOYSTICK is not set
# CONFIG_QIC02_TAPE is not set
# CONFIG_WATCHDOG is not set
# CONFIG_NVRAM is not set
CONFIG_RTC=y
# CONFIG_INTEL_RNG is not set

#
# Video For Linux
#
# CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV is not set
# CONFIG_DTLK is not set

#
# Ftape, the floppy tape device driver
#
# CONFIG_FTAPE is not set

#
# USB support
#
# CONFIG_USB is not set

#
# Filesystems
#
# CONFIG_QUOTA is not set
# CONFIG_AUTOFS_FS is not set
# CONFIG_AFFS_FS is not set
# CONFIG_HFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y
# CONFIG_UMSDOS_FS is not set
CONFIG_VFAT_FS=y
CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y
# CONFIG_JOLIET is not set
CONFIG_MINIX_FS=m
CONFIG_NTFS_FS=m
# CONFIG_HPFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS=y
# CONFIG_ROMFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
# CONFIG_SYSV_FS is not set
# CONFIG_UFS_FS is not set

#
# Network File Systems
#
# CONFIG_CODA_FS is not set
CONFIG_NFS_FS=m
# CONFIG_NFS_V3 is not set
# CONFIG_NFSD is not set
CONFIG_SUNRPC=m
CONFIG_LOCKD=m
# CONFIG_SMB_FS is not set
# CONFIG_NCP_FS is not set

#
# Partition Types
#
# CONFIG_BSD_DISKLABEL is not set
# CONFIG_MAC_PARTITION is not set
# CONFIG_MINIX_SUBPARTITION is not set
# CONFIG_SMD_DISKLABEL is not set
# CONFIG_SOLARIS_X86_PARTITION is not set
CONFIG_NLS=y

#
# Native Language Support
#
CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="cp437"
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_437 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_737 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_775 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_850 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_852 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_855 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_857 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_860 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_861 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_862 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_863 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_864 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_865 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_866 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_869 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_874 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_932 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_936 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_949 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_950 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_1 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_2 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_3 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_4 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_5 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_6 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_7 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_8 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_9 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_14 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_15 is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_KOI8_R is not set
# CONFIG_NLS_KOI8_RU is not set

#
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y

#
# Sound
#
# CONFIG_SOUND is not set

#
# Kernel hacking
#
# CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ is not set


Regards,

Roy Hills


--
Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
14 Ashford House, Beaufort Court,
Medway City Estate,                          Email: Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com
Rochester, Kent ME2 4FA, UK                  WWW:   http://www.nta-monitor.com/

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Matthias Andree]

On Fri, 28 Dec 2001, Roy Hills wrote:

> Note that I build the kernels on a separate machine, hence the "scp" to
> copy the kernel & sysmap to the target system.
> 
> The old 2.2.17 zImage kernel that runs fine has a filesize of 462060 bytes 
> and
> reports 784k kernel code, 412k reserved, 1168k data, 36k init.
> 
> The new 2.2.20 zImage kernel that fails has a filesize of 482795 bytes.
> Actual sizes are not known as the system fails with "out of memory" just
> after the decompression of the kernel and before any kernel messages get 
> printed.

Hum, I recall this struck another 2.2.x version already, and the
workaround was to hack some HASH size in one of the arch/i386/boot/
files. I don't recall the details, but you can find them in the
archives.

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Petri Kaukasoina]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 01:11:42PM +0000, Roy Hills wrote:
> The old 2.2.17 zImage kernel that runs fine has a filesize of 462060 bytes and
> reports 784k kernel code, 412k reserved, 1168k data, 36k init.
> 
> The new 2.2.20 zImage kernel that fails has a filesize of 482795 bytes.
> Note that the actual problem with Toshiba tecra laptops and bzImage files is
> a known hardware problem (something to do with the A20 line).  I'm not trying
> to address this problem, just why the normal workaround (use zImage rather
> than bzImage to keep in conventional memory) doesn't work any more with
> 2.2.20.

Hi, I used to make zImages, but for no specific reason. The last working
version was 2.2.20pre3. 2.2.20pre5 gave Out of memory -- System halted. I
reported it a few months ago:
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0108.2/0363.html

This was the only change then that looks like it:

o       Add support for the 2.4 boot extensions to 2.2  (H Peter Anvin)

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Wolfgang Erig]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 04:32:50PM +0200, Petri Kaukasoina wrote:
> Hi, I used to make zImages, but for no specific reason. The last working
> version was 2.2.20pre3. 2.2.20pre5 gave Out of memory -- System halted. I
> reported it a few months ago:
> http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0108.2/0363.html
> 
> This was the only change then that looks like it:
> 
> o       Add support for the 2.4 boot extensions to 2.2  (H Peter Anvin)
> -
Loading linux 2.2.20.......
Uncompressing Linux...


Out of memory


 -- System halted

Siemens/Nixdorf Mobile 710
Pentium MMX 166MHz, 128MB

Kernel 2.2.20 generated from perfectly running 2.2.19 with
make oldconfig; make dep; make zImage; ...

2.4.16 does not work too:
Loading linux 2.4.16........

[ black screen and than back in BIOS-boot ]

	Wolfgang

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <20011228211348.A8720@upset.pdb.fsc.net>
By author:    Wolfgang Erig <Wolfgang.Erig@fujitsu-siemens.com>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> Loading linux 2.2.20.......
> Uncompressing Linux...
> 
> Out of memory
> 
>  -- System halted
> 
> Siemens/Nixdorf Mobile 710
> Pentium MMX 166MHz, 128MB
> 
> Kernel 2.2.20 generated from perfectly running 2.2.19 with
> make oldconfig; make dep; make zImage; ...
> 
> 2.4.16 does not work too:
> Loading linux 2.4.16........
> 
> [ black screen and than back in BIOS-boot ]
> 

Chipset info?  BIOS info?

Also, is there any connection between this box and the Toshiba Tecra
710 (since they have similar type numbers?)

	-hpa
-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt	<amsp@zytor.com>

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Wolfgang Erig]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 06:23:45PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> > 
> > Loading linux 2.2.20.......
> > Uncompressing Linux...
> > 
> > Out of memory
> > 
> >  -- System halted
> > 
> > Siemens/Nixdorf Mobile 710
> > Pentium MMX 166MHz, 128MB
> > 
> > Kernel 2.2.20 generated from perfectly running 2.2.19 with
> > make oldconfig; make dep; make zImage; ...
> > 
> > 2.4.16 does not work too:
> > Loading linux 2.4.16........
> > 
> > [ black screen and than back in BIOS-boot ]
> > 
> 
> Chipset info?  BIOS info?
> 
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 430TX - 82439TX MTXC (rev 01)
00:01.0 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 01)
00:01.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:01.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:01.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 01)
00:06.0 VGA compatible controller: Chips and Technologies F65554 (rev c2)
00:14.0 CardBus bridge: Cirrus Logic PD 6832 (rev c1)
00:14.1 CardBus bridge: Cirrus Logic PD 6832 (rev c1)

PhoenixBIOS 4.0 RELEASE 5.1
BIOS REALEASE VERSION 3D24
Build Time: 09/07/98 15:01:24

> Also, is there any connection between this box and the Toshiba Tecra
> 710 (since they have similar type numbers?)

Likely this box is not built by Siemens/Nixdorf (only packaging and label)
so this is possible. I will try to find out,

	Wolfgang

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Roy Hills]

At 16:32 28/12/01 +0200, Petri Kaukasoina wrote:
>Hi, I used to make zImages, but for no specific reason. The last working
>version was 2.2.20pre3. 2.2.20pre5 gave Out of memory -- System halted. I
>reported it a few months ago:
>http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0108.2/0363.html
>
>This was the only change then that looks like it:
>
>o       Add support for the 2.4 boot extensions to 2.2  (H Peter Anvin)

So it looks like this is a real issue, and it's been tracked down to somewhere
between 2.2.20pre3 and 2.2.20pre5.

Unfortunately, I need to use zImage on my Tecra.  I know that zImage is
old, and I've heard that support for it will eventually be withdrawn, but I
don't really have much alternative right now unless there is a patch which
works around the Tecra's buggy A20 handling.

Does anyone know the status of zImage format in modern kernels?
Is it _supposed_ to be supported under 2.2.recent?  How about 2.4.recent?

I guess that, if zImage is supposed to be supported, then I have a genuine
bug.  However, if zImage support has officially been dropped, then it's a 
different
matter - in this case, the only bug would be that the Makefile should issue a
sensible message when you try to "make zImage" rather than producing a kernel
that won't work.

Regards,

Roy Hills

--
Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
14 Ashford House, Beaufort Court,
Medway City Estate,                          Email: Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com
Rochester, Kent ME2 4FA, UK                  WWW:   http://www.nta-monitor.com/

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Alan Cox]

> Unfortunately, I need to use zImage on my Tecra.  I know that zImage is
> old, and I've heard that support for it will eventually be withdrawn, but I
> don't really have much alternative right now unless there is a patch which
> works around the Tecra's buggy A20 handling.

If your tecra is one with the problem early intel PCI chipsets the
documentation on the workaround is on the intel.com site if you feel
creative 8)

Basically the A20 handling for hardware caches on some of these early chips
was broken. There were real hardware fixes for new boards and a software
workaround for old ones is described in the errata docs for the chip.

> Does anyone know the status of zImage format in modern kernels?
> Is it _supposed_ to be supported under 2.2.recent?  How about 2.4.recent?

It works for me. It is meant to work

Alan

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Petri Kaukasoina]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 06:19:38PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > Does anyone know the status of zImage format in modern kernels?
> > Is it _supposed_ to be supported under 2.2.recent?  How about 2.4.recent?
> 
> It works for me. It is meant to work

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 10:42:17AM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> I don't think there is any reason to believe zImage doesn't work
> unless bzImage works on your system.

Hi, I was one that reported the problem that zImage doesn't work. I don't
personally care whether it works or not because bzImages are fine for my
machines. Anyway, 2.2.20pre3 was ok but 2.2.20pre5 was not. I just rechecked
with 2.2.20 final. I compiled 2.2.20 'make zImage; make bzImage' for one old
486 and for one pentium. Both print Out of memory and System halted for the
zImages and work fine with bzImages.

486:

Memory: 47176k/49152k available (796k kernel code, 408k reserved, 728k data, 44k init)
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
 853655   90740  125288 1069683  105273 vmlinux
-rwxr-xr-x    1 kaukasoi users     1111776 Dec 28 21:46 vmlinux
-rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      458880 Dec 28 21:46 bzImage
-rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      458877 Dec 28 21:46 zImage

pentium:

Memory: 63516k/65536k available (736k kernel code, 416k reserved, 828k data, 40k init)
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
 788441   90140  105768  984349   f051d vmlinux
-rwxr-xr-x    1 kaukasoi users     1098107 Dec 28 22:04 vmlinux
-rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      442277 Dec 28 22:04 bzImage
-rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      442277 Dec 28 22:04 zImage

I compiled them with gcc version egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2
release) and binutils 2.11.90.0.19 (tehy are the versions that come with
Slackware 8.0). The pentium uses LILO version 19 and the 486 uses version
21.7-5.

If you think those are too large kernels for zImage, e.g. this 2.2.19 works
ok on the 486:
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       476269 Aug 11 23:32 zImage
Memory: 47136k/49152k available (832k kernel code, 412k reserved, 728k data, 44k init)

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <20011228223604.A370@elektroni.ee.tut.fi>
By author:    Petri Kaukasoina <kaukasoi@elektroni.ee.tut.fi>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> Hi, I was one that reported the problem that zImage doesn't work. I don't
> personally care whether it works or not because bzImages are fine for my
> machines. Anyway, 2.2.20pre3 was ok but 2.2.20pre5 was not. I just rechecked
> with 2.2.20 final. I compiled 2.2.20 'make zImage; make bzImage' for one old
> 486 and for one pentium. Both print Out of memory and System halted for the
> zImages and work fine with bzImages.
> 
> 486:
> 
> Memory: 47176k/49152k available (796k kernel code, 408k reserved, 728k data, 44k init)
>    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>  853655   90740  125288 1069683  105273 vmlinux
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 kaukasoi users     1111776 Dec 28 21:46 vmlinux
> -rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      458880 Dec 28 21:46 bzImage
> -rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      458877 Dec 28 21:46 zImage
> 
> pentium:
> 
> Memory: 63516k/65536k available (736k kernel code, 416k reserved, 828k data, 40k init)
>    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>  788441   90140  105768  984349   f051d vmlinux
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 kaukasoi users     1098107 Dec 28 22:04 vmlinux
> -rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      442277 Dec 28 22:04 bzImage
> -rw-r--r--    1 kaukasoi users      442277 Dec 28 22:04 zImage
> 
> I compiled them with gcc version egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2
> release) and binutils 2.11.90.0.19 (tehy are the versions that come with
> Slackware 8.0). The pentium uses LILO version 19 and the 486 uses version
> 21.7-5.
> 
> If you think those are too large kernels for zImage, e.g. this 2.2.19 works
> ok on the 486:
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       476269 Aug 11 23:32 zImage
> Memory: 47136k/49152k available (832k kernel code, 412k reserved, 728k data, 44k init)
> -

Machine/motherboard/chipset/BIOS info?

	-hpa
-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt	<amsp@zytor.com>

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Alan Cox]

> Machine/motherboard/chipset/BIOS info?

Might be worth waiting for 2.2.21pre1 - my patch assembling turned up a
pending diff related to zImage boot crashes.

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Petri Kaukasoina]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 06:25:06PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Machine/motherboard/chipset/BIOS info?

I don't know if this is needed any more, in case Alan has a pending patch
already. But none of my three home machines can boot 2.2.20 zImages from
LILO:

486 (133 MHz): motherboard MG-PCI 486, chipset UMC880, AMIBIOS from year
1993.

pentium (MMX 150 MHz): IBM Thinkpad 310 E.

athlon (TB 1400 MHz): motherboard Abit KG7-RAID, AMD760/VIA686, Award BIOS.

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <4.3.2.7.2.20011228173505.00aa3da0@192.168.124.1>
By author:    Roy Hills <linux-kernel-l@nta-monitor.com>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> Unfortunately, I need to use zImage on my Tecra.  I know that zImage is
> old, and I've heard that support for it will eventually be withdrawn, but I
> don't really have much alternative right now unless there is a patch which
> works around the Tecra's buggy A20 handling.
> 

I believe this is now a myth.  Toshiba's weird A20 problems should
have been worked around for a long, long time; and I believe the
latest set of changes in 2.4 should make that thouroughly complete.
In fact, if your bzImages don't work either, I suspect your problems
isn't at all one of zImage vs bzImage but that there is a separate bug
that's biting you independently.

> Does anyone know the status of zImage format in modern kernels?
> Is it _supposed_ to be supported under 2.2.recent?  How about 2.4.recent?
> 
> I guess that, if zImage is supposed to be supported, then I have a
> genuine bug.  However, if zImage support has officially been
> dropped, then it's a different matter - in this case, the only bug
> would be that the Makefile should issue a sensible message when you
> try to "make zImage" rather than producing a kernel that won't work.

zImage format will probably be removed in the 2.5 series.  It's
virtually impossible to fit a practical 2.4 kernel within the zImage
size limits.

	-hpa
-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt	<amsp@zytor.com>

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Alan Cox]

> zImage format will probably be removed in the 2.5 series.  It's
> virtually impossible to fit a practical 2.4 kernel within the zImage
> size limits.

2.5 should make it much easier because by the time Al has finished most of
your kernel will be in the initrd not the zImage 8)

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <4.3.2.7.2.20011228173505.00aa3da0@192.168.124.1>
By author:    Roy Hills <linux-kernel-l@nta-monitor.com>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> Unfortunately, I need to use zImage on my Tecra.  I know that zImage is
> old, and I've heard that support for it will eventually be withdrawn, but I
> don't really have much alternative right now unless there is a patch which
> works around the Tecra's buggy A20 handling.
> 

Oh, by the way, the "I need to use zImage on my Tecra" thing is making
it work by the use of voodoo.  It's rather unfortunate it worked on
some systems -- it's going to fail randomly on you anyway; it's just a
matter of which way the timings and cache items get jerked around.

I have asked Alan for more details on the workaround, but perhaps the
thing to do is to backport the latest 2.4 A20 code back to 2.2 and see
if that solves the *real* problem, so bzImage works.

I don't think there is any reason to believe zImage doesn't work
unless bzImage works on your system.

	-hpa
-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt	<amsp@zytor.com>

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Roy Hills]

At 09:30 29/12/01 -0200, vda wrote:
>Maybe it's better to fix a20 problem? I never heard about Tecra a20 bug,
>can you point me to the info?
>--
>vda

My understanding is that the problem is something to do with the
Toshiba Tecra laptops not flushing the cache properly when activating
the A20 line.  This causes a problem for bzImage kernels because they
decompress into extended memory, whereas zImage kernels don't and
thus don't tickle the bug.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen a proper technical description of the problem
nor any workaround or patch.

Earlier versions of Debian Linux e.g. 2.1 (the distro that I use) used to 
supply
special "Tecra" kernels because of this problem.

Alan Cox said in a previous message in this thread:

ac>If your tecra is one with the problem early intel PCI chipsets the
ac>documentation on the workaround is on the intel.com site if you feel
ac>creative 8)

ac>Basically the A20 handling for hardware caches on some of these early chips
ac>was broken. There were real hardware fixes for new boards and a software
ac>workaround for old ones is described in the errata docs for the chip.

This sounds about right, but I've not been able to locate the info on Intel's
website.

Roy Hills
--
Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
14 Ashford House, Beaufort Court,
Medway City Estate,                          Email: Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com
Rochester, Kent ME2 4FA, UK                  WWW:   http://www.nta-monitor.com/

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <4.3.2.7.2.20011231090710.00ab7e30@192.168.124.1>
By author:    Roy Hills <linux-kernel-l@nta-monitor.com>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> My understanding is that the problem is something to do with the
> Toshiba Tecra laptops not flushing the cache properly when activating
> the A20 line.  This causes a problem for bzImage kernels because they
> decompress into extended memory, whereas zImage kernels don't and
> thus don't tickle the bug.
> 

It's a timing problem; it has nothing to do with the cache.  The
workaround for the timing problem was added a long time ago.

	-hpa
-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt	<amsp@zytor.com>

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Roy Hills]

At 10:36 28/12/01 -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>I believe this is now a myth.  Toshiba's weird A20 problems should
>have been worked around for a long, long time; and I believe the
>latest set of changes in 2.4 should make that thouroughly complete.
>In fact, if your bzImages don't work either, I suspect your problems
>isn't at all one of zImage vs bzImage but that there is a separate bug
>that's biting you independently.

You're right - I've just done a "make bzImage" on the same .config
file and the resulting kernel boots fine on my Tecra!

I'm a happy bunny now because I can just use bzImage for all my
systems.

So it looks like the Tecra A20 problem was worked around some
time ago, it's just that I remember the days when it wasn't and had
learnt the zImage workaround.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.  I really don't know why
I didn't just try bzImage before.

Although the Tecra problem has been solved, the zImage bug remains,
although I'm not concerned about it now that I can use bzImage.

Roy Hills

--
Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
14 Ashford House, Beaufort Court,
Medway City Estate,                          Email: Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com
Rochester, Kent ME2 4FA, UK                  WWW:   http://www.nta-monitor.com/

Re: zImage not supported for 2.2.20?

[Petri Kaukasoina]

On Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 12:16:57PM +0000, Roy Hills wrote:
> Although the Tecra problem has been solved, the zImage bug remains,
> although I'm not concerned about it now that I can use bzImage.

My machines boot 2.2.21pre1 zImages ok.