Re: [PATCH] Early memory patch, +accounting

[H. Peter Anvin]

Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> I intend to export _end into setup.S so a bootloader can
> tell what memory the kernel will attempt to use before looking at
> the e820 map, the kernel command line, and the initrd location.
> After that the kernel can properly dynamically allocate things.

You're confusing "may" with "will".  This is the fundamental problem 
with this approach.

> Exporting _end will allow two things.
> 1) On systems with a 15M-16M I/O hole the bootloader can check to see
>    if a big kernel will attempt to use memory in that region.
>
> 2) On small memory systems it will let the bootloader make a good
>    estimate to see if everything will fit into memory.

No, it won't, because it still has no idea whatsoever how much 
dynamically allocated memory it needs during boot.

	-hpa
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