Re: bzImage patch ? for monolithic kernels

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Fri, 06 Aug 1999 03:47:30 -0700

Riley Williams wrote:
>
> > Actually, I don't see why 16 MB would be a limit for bzImage
> > either...
>
> Memory says that the 16 MB limit is because the bzImage copying code
> works in 286 protected mode, as that's the mode used by the BIOS
> copying routines that it depends on, and 16 MB is the hardware limit
> in that mode.
>

Where do you see that?

>
> If my patch works the way it looks like, then 64 Terabytes will be the
> actual kernel size limit as far as storage is concerned, so having a
> gzImage format that could work past that limit would be feasible. Such
> would presumably be done via a two-stage process, with the bzImage
> code copying the first 16 MB, and a secondary routine then copying the
> rest of the kernel into place.
>

This would just be a bug fix to bzImage, not a new format (the boot
loaders would be unaffected.)

-hpa

-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!


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