Re: [PATCH 9/33] i386 boot: Add serial output support to the decompressor

Eric W. Biederman
2006-08-02T03:07:51Z

Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> writes:

> "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com> writes:
>> }
>> @@ -200,6 +224,178 @@ static void putstr(const char *s)
>> outb_p(0xff & (pos >> 1), vidport+1);
>> }
>>
>> +static void vid_console_init(void)
>
> Please just use early_printk instead of reimplementing this.
> I think it should work in this context too.

There is certainly some value in that. To do that I would
need to refactor early_printk to make it useable.

This comment from one of patches summaries the worst of the problems.

> /* WARNING!!
> * This code is compiled with -fPIC and it is relocated dynamically
> * at run time, but no relocation processing is performed.
> * This means that it is not safe to place pointers in static structures.
> */

lib/string.c might be useful. The fact that the functions are not
static slightly concerns me. I have a vague memory of non-static
functions generating relocations for no good reason.

Eric