Re: [PATCH v2 03/13] x86: Add macro for 64bit entry startup_64

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Mon Nov 19 2012 - 18:13:37 EST


On 11/19/2012 02:53 PM, Yinghai Lu wrote:
>>
>> We can't change the 0x200 value, ever, because there are already things
>> that use the 64-bit entry point. As such, these macros and the bzImage
>> fields are pointless; let's not bother and instead document the 0x200 as
>> the permanently fixed address of the 64-bit entry point.
>
> ok,
>
> any other field, in header struct field that we can use to tell
> bzImage could be used that
> 0x200 directly?
>
> hardware_subarch?
>

There isn't one... this dates back all the way to the original x86-64
kernels.

Are you asking if we can tell this is a 64-bit kernel (as opposed to a
32-bit kernel, which obviously doesn't have a 64-bit entry point)?
Unfortunately there isn't an intentional one that I know of. There
might be an accidental such indicator, but we'd have to go back to look
at 8+ years of kernels. We can't even rely on a jmp instruction at the
address...

-hpa

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