linux-kernel - Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels

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Message-Id: <200707160742.25232.nigel@nigel.suspend2.net>
Date:	Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:42:24 +1000
From:	Nigel Cunningham <nigel@...el.suspend2.net>
To:	Jonathan Campbell <jon@...dgrounds.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, torvalds@...nsmeta.com
Subject: Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels

Hi Jonathan.

On Monday 16 July 2007 07:00:29 Jonathan Campbell wrote:
> I wrote a set of patches out of concern that even if you compile a 386 
> kernel a lot of code irrelevent to legacy machines still remains. Things 
> like the Pentium TSC register, DMI information, ESCD parsing, and the 
> use of CPUID do not apply to these machines, but looking at System.map 
> you can see they're still there.
> 
> Already with these patches I can compile a zImage kernel that is 450kb 
> large (890kb decompressed) with a small initramfs payload, floppy and 
> kernel module support, FPU emulation, that can successfully boot on an 
> ancient 386 laptop with only 1MB of extended memory. Eventually what I'd 
> like to have is the ability to compile a pure 386 kernel with all 
> non-386 functions removed (and perhaps the same for 486 machines).
> 
> These patches were written against the vanilla 2.6.21.1 kernel. They 
> will have no effect UNLESS you make menuconfig and explicitly enable 
> them there.

Would you please make mrproper before preparing the patch? It's harder to read 
with all the "Only in..." lines.

Regards,

Nigel

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