[PATCH] i386: Implement CONFIG_PHYSICAL_ALIGN
o Now CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START is being replaced with CONFIG_PHYSICAL_ALIGN.
Hardcoding the kernel physical start value creates a problem in relocatable
kernel context due to boot loader limitations. For ex, if somebody
compiles a relocatable kernel to be run from address 4MB, but this kernel
will run from location 1MB as grub loads the kernel at physical address
1MB. Kernel thinks that I am a relocatable kernel and I should run from
the address I have been loaded at. So somebody wanting to run kernel
from 4MB alignment location (for improved performance regions) can't do
that.
o Hence, Eric proposed that probably CONFIG_PHYSICAL_ALIGN will make
more sense in relocatable kernel context. At run time kernel will move
itself to a physical addr location which meets user specified alignment
restrictions.
Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
diff --git a/arch/i386/Kconfig b/arch/i386/Kconfig
index d588ca8..fd2fa7a 100644
--- a/arch/i386/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/i386/Kconfig
@@ -785,23 +785,26 @@
must live at a different physical address than the primary
kernel.
-config PHYSICAL_START
- hex "Physical address where the kernel is loaded" if (EMBEDDED || CRASH_DUMP)
-
- default "0x1000000" if CRASH_DUMP
+config PHYSICAL_ALIGN
+ hex "Alignment value to which kernel should be aligned"
default "0x100000"
+ range 0x2000 0x400000
help
- This gives the physical address where the kernel is loaded. Normally
- for regular kernels this value is 0x100000 (1MB). But in the case
- of kexec on panic the fail safe kernel needs to run at a different
- address than the panic-ed kernel. This option is used to set the load
- address for kernels used to capture crash dump on being kexec'ed
- after panic. The default value for crash dump kernels is
- 0x1000000 (16MB). This can also be set based on the "X" value as
- specified in the "crashkernel=YM@XM" command line boot parameter
- passed to the panic-ed kernel. Typically this parameter is set as
- crashkernel=64M@16M. Please take a look at
- Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt for more details about crash dumps.
+ This value puts the alignment restrictions on physical address
+ where kernel is loaded and run from. Kernel is compiled for an
+ address which meets above alignment restriction.
+
+ If bootloader loads the kernel at a non-aligned address and
+ CONFIG_RELOCATABLE is set, kernel will move itself to nearest
+ address aligned to above value and run from there.
+
+ If bootloader loads the kernel at a non-aligned address and
+ CONFIG_RELOCATABLE is not set, kernel will ignore the run time
+ load address and decompress itself to the address it has been
+ compiled for and run from there. The address for which kernel is
+ compiled already meets above alignment restrictions. Hence the
+ end result is that kernel runs from a physical address meeting
+ above alignment restrictions.
Don't change this unless you know what you are doing.