This check is done for *compressed* kernel with bootsect.o/setup.o appended.
The 16 bit value for kernel size
syssize:
.word SYSSIZE
is used by code from bootsect.S (and setup.S for bzimage). It is 16 bit
as the loader code use 16-bit registers.
> > Do you know any patch that allows to build and boot a kernel of size
> > ~1.3 MB directly from floppy, without lilo/loadlin ?
>
> In theory you should be able to - that's what the bootsect.s stuff is
> compiled into the start of the kernel image is for. I believe you could
> use dd if=vmlinux of=/dev/fd0, and try booting.
As I mentioned above: bootsect.S/setup.S code works for kernel files less
than 1MB only. And it is not easy to be modified as bootsect.o must be
less than 512 bytes, setup.o must be located on the first track ( <4kB ),
etc...
Also backward compatibility problems may appear.
Cheers
Andrzej
-- ======================================================================= Andrzej M. Krzysztofowicz ankry@mif.pg.gda.pl phone (48)(58) 347 14 61 Faculty of Applied Phys. & Math., Technical University of Gdansk- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/