Based on kernel version 3.9. Page generated on 2013-05-02 23:12 EST.
1 Information about the Linux/PPC kernel images 2 ===================================================================== 3 4 Please mail me (Cort Dougan, cort@fsmlabs.com) if you have questions, 5 comments or corrections. 6 7 This document is meant to answer several questions I've had about how 8 the PReP system boots and how Linux/PPC interacts with that mechanism. 9 It would be nice if we could have information on how other architectures 10 boot here as well. If you have anything to contribute, please 11 let me know. 12 13 14 1. PReP boot file 15 16 This is the file necessary to boot PReP systems from floppy or 17 hard drive. The firmware reads the PReP partition table entry 18 and will load the image accordingly. 19 20 To boot the zImage, copy it onto a floppy with dd if=zImage of=/dev/fd0h1440 21 or onto a PReP hard drive partition with dd if=zImage of=/dev/sda4 22 assuming you've created a PReP partition (type 0x41) with fdisk on 23 /dev/sda4. 24 25 The layout of the image format is: 26 27 0x0 +------------+ 28 | | PReP partition table entry 29 | | 30 0x400 +------------+ 31 | | Bootstrap program code + data 32 | | 33 | | 34 +------------+ 35 | | compressed kernel, elf header removed 36 +------------+ 37 | | initrd (if loaded) 38 +------------+ 39 | | Elf section table for bootstrap program 40 +------------+ 41 42 43 2. MBX boot file 44 45 The MBX boards can load an elf image, and relocate it to the 46 proper location in memory - it copies the image to the location it was 47 linked at.