aha/Documentation/i386/zero-page.txt
Andi Kleen 43fb2387d0 i386: Add warning in Documentation that zero-page is not a stable ABI
Some people writing boot loaders seem to falsely belief the 32bit zero page is a
stable interface for out of tree code like the real mode boot protocol. Add a comment
clarifying that is not true.

Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-08-11 15:58:14 -07:00

99 lines
4 KiB
Text

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!!
The zero page is a kernel internal data structure, not a stable ABI. It might change
without warning and the kernel has no way to detect old version of it.
If you're writing some external code like a boot loader you should only use
the stable versioned real mode boot protocol described in boot.txt. Otherwise the kernel
might break you at any time.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary of boot_params layout (kernel point of view)
( collected by Hans Lermen and Martin Mares )
The contents of boot_params are used to pass parameters from the
16-bit realmode code of the kernel to the 32-bit part. References/settings
to it mainly are in:
arch/i386/boot/setup.S
arch/i386/boot/video.S
arch/i386/kernel/head.S
arch/i386/kernel/setup.c
Offset Type Description
------ ---- -----------
0 32 bytes struct screen_info, SCREEN_INFO
ATTENTION, overlaps the following !!!
2 unsigned short EXT_MEM_K, extended memory size in Kb (from int 0x15)
0x20 unsigned short CL_MAGIC, commandline magic number (=0xA33F)
0x22 unsigned short CL_OFFSET, commandline offset
Address of commandline is calculated:
0x90000 + contents of CL_OFFSET
(only taken, when CL_MAGIC = 0xA33F)
0x40 20 bytes struct apm_bios_info, APM_BIOS_INFO
0x60 16 bytes Intel SpeedStep (IST) BIOS support information
0x80 16 bytes hd0-disk-parameter from intvector 0x41
0x90 16 bytes hd1-disk-parameter from intvector 0x46
0xa0 16 bytes System description table truncated to 16 bytes.
( struct sys_desc_table_struct )
0xb0 - 0x13f Free. Add more parameters here if you really need them.
0x140- 0x1be EDID_INFO Video mode setup
0x1c4 unsigned long EFI system table pointer
0x1c8 unsigned long EFI memory descriptor size
0x1cc unsigned long EFI memory descriptor version
0x1d0 unsigned long EFI memory descriptor map pointer
0x1d4 unsigned long EFI memory descriptor map size
0x1e0 unsigned long ALT_MEM_K, alternative mem check, in Kb
0x1e4 unsigned long Scratch field for the kernel setup code
0x1e8 char number of entries in E820MAP (below)
0x1e9 unsigned char number of entries in EDDBUF (below)
0x1ea unsigned char number of entries in EDD_MBR_SIG_BUFFER (below)
0x1f1 char size of setup.S, number of sectors
0x1f2 unsigned short MOUNT_ROOT_RDONLY (if !=0)
0x1f4 unsigned short size of compressed kernel-part in the
(b)zImage-file (in 16 byte units, rounded up)
0x1f6 unsigned short swap_dev (unused AFAIK)
0x1f8 unsigned short RAMDISK_FLAGS
0x1fa unsigned short VGA-Mode (old one)
0x1fc unsigned short ORIG_ROOT_DEV (high=Major, low=minor)
0x1ff char AUX_DEVICE_INFO
0x200 short jump to start of setup code aka "reserved" field.
0x202 4 bytes Signature for SETUP-header, ="HdrS"
0x206 unsigned short Version number of header format
Current version is 0x0201...
0x208 8 bytes (used by setup.S for communication with boot loaders,
look there)
0x210 char LOADER_TYPE, = 0, old one
else it is set by the loader:
0xTV: T=0 for LILO
1 for Loadlin
2 for bootsect-loader
3 for SYSLINUX
4 for ETHERBOOT
5 for ELILO
7 for GRuB
8 for U-BOOT
9 for Xen
V = version
0x211 char loadflags:
bit0 = 1: kernel is loaded high (bzImage)
bit7 = 1: Heap and pointer (see below) set by boot
loader.
0x212 unsigned short (setup.S)
0x214 unsigned long KERNEL_START, where the loader started the kernel
0x218 unsigned long INITRD_START, address of loaded ramdisk image
0x21c unsigned long INITRD_SIZE, size in bytes of ramdisk image
0x220 4 bytes (setup.S)
0x224 unsigned short setup.S heap end pointer
0x226 unsigned short zero_pad
0x228 unsigned long cmd_line_ptr
0x22c unsigned long ramdisk_max
0x230 16 bytes trampoline
0x290 - 0x2cf EDD_MBR_SIG_BUFFER (edd.S)
0x2d0 - 0xd00 E820MAP
0xd00 - 0xeff EDDBUF (edd.S) for disk signature read sector
0xd00 - 0xeeb EDDBUF (edd.S) for edd data