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

H. Peter Anvin
2006-10-05T04:17:49Z

Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com> writes:
>
>> Well, it doesn't help if what you end up with for some bootloader is a
>> nonfunctioning kernel.
>
> I agree. We need to look at what is happening closely.
> However just because we have some initial glitches doesn't mean we
> shouldn't give up.
>
> With grub you can say:
> kernel --type=biglinux /path/to/bzImage
>
> As I read the code it won't necessarily force the type of kernel image
> grub will use but it will refuse to boot if it doesn't recognize
> the kernel as the type specified.
>
> The code for grub is in stage2/boot.c:load_image(). It tries a few
> other formats before it tests for the linux magic number but
> it won't recognize an ELF format executable unless it is a mutliboot
> or a BSD executable.
>

This isn't just about Grub, though. There is probably about a dozen
bootloaders in use on i386, if not more.

-hpa