Re: [PATCH] THE LINUX/I386 BOOT PROTOCOL - Breaking the 256 limit (ping)

Andi Kleen
2006-08-27T19:16:29Z

On Sunday 27 August 2006 20:50, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Andi Kleen wrote:
> >
> > The last time I tried this on x86-64 lilo on systems that used EDD broke.
> > EDD uses part of the bootup page too. So most likely it's not that simple.
> >
> > And please don't shout your subjects.
> >
>
> On i386, the command line is never stored in the bootup page; only a
> pointer to it is. The copying is done straight into the
> saved_command_line buffer in the kernel BSS (head.S lines 79-104).
>
> x86-64 does the same thing, but in C code (head64.c lines 45-56.) Thus,
> if you had a problem with LILO, I suspect the problem was inside LILO
> itself, and not a kernel issue.

Just increasing that constant caused various lilo setups to not boot
anymore. I don't know who is actually to blame, just wanting to
point out that this "obvious" patch isn't actually that obvious.

-Andi