Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
H. Peter Anvin wrote:
I'm proposing that the existing bzImage format be retained, but that
the payload of the decompressor (already a gzip file) simply be
vmlinux.gz -- i.e. a gzip compressed ELF file, notes and all. A
pointer in the header will point to the offset of the payload (this is
new, obviously.)
The decompression stub is adjusted to expect an ELF image, instead of
a raw binary.
It could, or just treat it as a raw binary at 1M+offset to skip the headers.
It would be cleaner to actually parse the ELF; it's only a handful of
lines of code (we don't have to support arbitrary placement of sections,
obviously, which makes the problem simpler.)
Existing bootloaders (16- or 32-bit) simply load the bzImage the way
they do now; new bootloaders have the option of accessing the
vmlinux.gz directly if they either want to load it themselves or want
to examine the notes.
OK, but that has the same problem as making the payload an ELF file:
32-bit bootloaders which simply jump to 1M will be jumping into data
rather than code - and I got the impression from taking to Eric at KS
that there are such bootloaders.
Uhm, no it doesn't. Those bootloaders jump to the decompressor, not to
the payload. The decompressor interface hasn't changed.
If that's not an issue, then I still think the payload should be a plain
ELF file (possibly self-decompressing, or just a plain uncompressed
vmlinux, if that's what's desired). Still think making a protected-mode
bootloader do the decompression is the wrong way to go about this; ELF
is enough.
It doesn't have to if it doesn't want to; it only needs to do so if it
wants to access the kernel as an ELF. Again, it has the advantage that
the ELF is the real vmlinux, no funnies.
-hpa
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