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Date:      Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:35:23 -0400
From:      John Baldwin <john@baldwin.cx>
To:        Carsten =?iso-8859-15?q?B=E4cker?= <cbaecker@demig.de>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: loader(8) readin failed on 7.2R and later including 8.0R
Message-ID:  <201003180935.23634.john@baldwin.cx>
In-Reply-To: <4BA20A43.10006@demig.de>
References:  <4BA20A43.10006@demig.de>

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On Thursday 18 March 2010 7:10:59 am Carsten B=E4cker wrote:
> Hello,
>=20
> i ran into a similar problem when recently trying to install 8.0R on an
> embedded system. We've been using this hardware for a couple of
> years with FreeBSD 4.11 and didn't see any problem like this.
>=20
> Disabling the memory hole (15-16M) solved the problem here, but
> that shouldn't be a solution. I wonder whether it's a loader-, or a
> BIOS-problem, since memory-allocation should respect reserved
> areas.

The problem is likely because an 8.0 kernel is simply larger than a 4.11
kernel.  4.11's loader would have had the same issue.  The problem (as it
were), is that we expect to be able to load the kernel + modules into one
contiguous chunk of RAM, starting at 4MB (PAE and amd64 kernels start at
2MB).
=20
> Best regards
> Carsten B=E4cker
>=20
>=20
> On Sunday 06 December 2009 12:16:36 am Hiroki Sato wrote:
> >  Hiroki Sato<h...@freebsd.org>  wrote
> >    in<20091205.184250.201700943....@allbsd.org>:
> >
> >  hr>   A summary so far is:
> >  hr>
> >  hr>   1)  a<8MB 7.1R kernel + stock 8.0R loader
> >  hr>   2a) a>8MB 8.0R kernel + stock 8.0R loader
> >  hr>   2b) a>8MB 8.0R kernel + 8.0R loader with LOADER_NO_GPT_SUPPORT=
=3Dyes
> >  hr>   2c) a>8MB 8.0R kernel + loader with your patch
> >  hr>   3a) a<8MB 8.0R kernel + stock 8.0R loader
> >  hr>   3b) a<8MB 8.0R kernel + 8.0R loader with LOADER_NO_GPT_SUPPORT=
=3Dyes
> >  hr>   3c) a<8MB 8.0R kernel + loader with your patch
> >
> >   Grr, I double-checked how it got stuck, then I found the console
> >   redirect was disabled because of an old device.hints.  The revised
> >   summary is:
> >
> >         loading text      loading syms       boot
> >    1)   OK                OK                 OK
> >    2a)  "readin failed"   -                  -
> >    2b)  OK                "skipped!"         OK
> >    2c)  OK                "skipped!"         OK
> >    3a)  OK                OK                 OK
> >    3b)  OK                OK                 OK
> >    3c)  OK                OK                 OK
> >
> >   So, the case 2c shows that your patch solves the problem in the case
> >   2a.  Thank you! :)
> >
> >   Loading>8MB kernel works now, but loading syms sections still fails
> >   even in the case 2c.
>=20
> Ok.  Your system's SMAP is kind of weird (it has a very small region above
> 1MB, so it may not deal well with "large" kernels, though I thought it had
> enough room for at least a 12MB kernel.  Hmm, the size of the kernel file=
 may
> be deceptive though since it does not include BSS.  I wonder if it is try=
ing
> to load the symbols after the BSS.

=2D-=20
John Baldwin



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