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

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Message-ID: <452422FD.5000406@zytor.com>
Date:	Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:09:17 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	vgoyal@...ibm.com
CC:	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>,
	linux kernel mailing list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Reloc Kernel List <fastboot@...ts.osdl.org>, ak@...e.de,
	horms@...ge.net.au, lace@...kratochvil.net, magnus.damm@...il.com,
	lwang@...hat.com, dzickus@...hat.com, maneesh@...ibm.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 12/12] i386 boot: Add an ELF header to bzImage

Vivek Goyal wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 01:52:58PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> Vivek Goyal wrote:
>>> memsz will contain the memory required to load the kernel image. And
>>> probably should also include the memory used by kernel in initial boot
>>> up code which is unaccounted and unbounded.
>>>
>> Right, so that's a major project to produce.
>>
> 
> Eric is already doing that in his patch. He goes through vmlinux
> headers to determine the memory to load the various segments and then
> also takes into account the memory required by bootmem bitmap (128K)
> and memory consumed by initial page tables (tools/build.c).  We can
> audit the code more closely for anything missed and can also include
> some buffer amount to be safe. 
> 
> The only flip side would be that if down the line somebody changes
> the initial bootup code, he shall have to also acccount it in
> tools/build.c. Having said that, its not frequent that initial bootup
> code changes.
> 

No, but it's going to be extremely hard to get this straight unless this 
is actually enforced.  I suspect there needs to be a check and a message 
if this is violated.

	-hpa
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