[Fwd: [PATCH] PPC64: large INITRD causes kernel not to boot]

[Mark Bellon]

Olaf Hering wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 08, Mark Bellon wrote:
>
>  
>
>>>I could not load a 10Mb file via network on a POWER4 LPAR. Maybe your
>>>case is a huge ELF memsize. On what system do you see the failure?
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Motorola 6101 with 2 GB of RAM amongst others. I've got to support a 260 
>>MB INITRD (and entire environment).
>>
>>I've seen firmware problems on platforms with huge ELF files. Never gets 
>>to execute code.
>>    
>>
>
>Where is the firmware located on your board, and where is the stack?
>stack is at 42MB on pseries, maybe some real huge kernel + initrd can
>overwrite parts of the stack. That would be 22MB, can probably only
>happen when loaded from yaboot.
>  
>
Yes, the stack getting trashed is what is often looks like. The 22 MB 
seems about right for some of the firmware. Other firmwares seem to work 
to a much larger size.

Regardless of the firmware issues I want to make sure the kernel/wrapper 
are clean for any size kernel+initrd.

I'm testing a simplified patch that makes use of _end as you suggested. 
All the math is replaced by a "round up" of _end to set the initial 
claim_base. I hope to post the patch soon.

mark