Re: [BUG] x86 kenel won't boot under Virtual PC

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Mon Sep 08 2008 - 12:20:38 EST




On Mon, 8 Sep 2008, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
> And yes, it should be the default. The patch I have makes it
> "default y" as well as change the help text.

It sounds like it shouldn't be a default at all, it should just _always_
be on, if there really are gcc's that care that much. Most of our
optimizations have historically really been about _optimizing_, not about
"it won't work", even if we have had exceptions (but as mentioned, I think
those exceptions have been way more imporant than NOPL).

> Would it make you happier if this option was forced enabled unless
> CONFIG_EMBEDDED was on?

Yes, putting it behind EMBEDDED will certainly fix the issue. Anybody who
actually enables EMBEDDED and does all his choices by hand should no
longer expect to not have to know _exactly_ what he is doing.

So if it's behind EMBEDDED, and defaults to "on", then I have no problem
with changing the help text to say "If you do this, we'll statically do
things that really _require_ you to have a CPU that looks _exactly_ like
the CPU you claimed".

Linus
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