Re: [PATCH 0/5] Add second memory region for crash kernel

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Thu Apr 22 2010 - 18:42:04 EST


On 04/22/2010 03:07 PM, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>
> Have you tried loading a 64bit vmlinux directly into a higher address
> range? There may be a bit or two missing but you should be able to
> load a linux kernel above 4GB. I tested the basics of that mechanism
> when I made the 64bit relocatable kernel.
>
> I don't buy the argument that there is a direct connection between
> the amount of memory you have and how much memory it takes to dump it.
> Even an indirect connections seems suspicious.
>

We actually have a 64-bit entry point even in bzImage; it is at offset
+0x200 from the 32-bit entry point. Right now that offset is not
exported anywhere, but it has been stable for a very long time... at
least for as far back as the decompressor has been 64 bits.

The interface to the 64-bit code is by necessity wider, since there is
no such thing as paging off in 64-bit mode, but it probably isn't *too*
hard to figure out how page tables need to be set up in order to work
properly. At that point, it would be good to document it.

-hpa
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