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

[H. Peter Anvin]

Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> > Well, it doesn't help if what you end up with for some bootloader is a
> > nonfunctioning kernel.
>
> I agree.  We need to look at what is happening closely.  
> However just because we have some initial glitches doesn't mean we
> shouldn't give up.
>
> With grub you can say:
> kernel --type=biglinux /path/to/bzImage
>
> As I read the code it won't necessarily force the type of kernel image
> grub will use but it will refuse to boot if it doesn't recognize 
> the kernel as the type specified.
>
> The code for grub is in stage2/boot.c:load_image().  It tries a few
> other formats before it tests for the linux magic number but
> it won't recognize an ELF format executable unless it is a mutliboot
> or a BSD executable.

This isn't just about Grub, though.  There is probably about a dozen 
bootloaders in use on i386, if not more.

	-hpa
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