This patch defines a 32-bit boot protocol and adds corresponding
document.

Signed-off-by: Huang Ying <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

---

 boot.txt |  105 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Index: linux-2.6.23-rc4/Documentation/i386/boot.txt
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.23-rc4.orig/Documentation/i386/boot.txt   2007-09-17 
11:22:32.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-2.6.23-rc4/Documentation/i386/boot.txt        2007-09-17 
11:34:10.000000000 +0800
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
                     ----------------------------
 
                    H. Peter Anvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-                       Last update 2007-05-23
+                       Last update 2007-09-14
 
 On the i386 platform, the Linux kernel uses a rather complicated boot
 convention.  This has evolved partially due to historical aspects, as
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@
 Protocol 2.06: (Kernel 2.6.22) Added a field that contains the size of
                the boot command line
 
+Protocol 2.07: (kernel 2.6.23) Added a field of 64-bit physical
+               pointer to single linked list of struct setup_data.
+               Added 32-bit boot protocol.
 
 **** MEMORY LAYOUT
 
@@ -168,6 +171,9 @@
 0234/1 2.05+   relocatable_kernel Whether kernel is relocatable or not
 0235/3 N/A     pad2            Unused
 0238/4 2.06+   cmdline_size    Maximum size of the kernel command line
+023c/4 N/A     pad3            Unused
+0240/8 2.07+   setup_data      64-bit physical pointer to linked list
+                               of struct setup_data
 
 (1) For backwards compatibility, if the setup_sects field contains 0, the
     real value is 4.
@@ -480,6 +486,36 @@
   cmdline_size characters. With protocol version 2.05 and earlier, the
   maximum size was 255.
 
+Field name:    setup_data
+Type:          write (obligatory)
+Offset/size:   0x240/8
+Protocol:      2.07+
+
+  The 64-bit physical pointer to NULL terminated single linked list of
+  struct setup_data. This is used to define a more extensible boot
+  parameters passing mechanism. The definition of struct setup_data is
+  as follow:
+
+  struct setup_data {
+         u64 next;
+         u32 type;
+         u32 len;
+         u8  data[0];
+  } __attribute__((packed));
+
+  Where, the next is a 64-bit physical pointer to the next node of
+  linked list, the next field of the last node is 0; the type is used
+  to identify the contents of data; the len is the length of data
+  field; the data holds the real payload.
+
+  With this field, to add a new boot parameter written by bootloader,
+  it is not needed to add a new field to real mode header, just add a
+  new setup_data type is sufficient. But to add a new boot parameter
+  read by bootloader, it is still needed to add a new field.
+
+  TODO: Where is the safe place to place the linked list of struct
+       setup_data?
+
 
 **** THE KERNEL COMMAND LINE
 
@@ -753,3 +789,70 @@
        After completing your hook, you should jump to the address
        that was in this field before your boot loader overwrote it
        (relocated, if appropriate.)
+
+
+**** SETUP DATA TYPES
+
+
+**** 32-bit BOOT PROTOCOL
+
+For machine with some new BIOS other than legacy BIOS, such as EFI,
+LinuxBIOS, etc, and kexec, the 16-bit real mode setup code in kernel
+based on legacy BIOS can not be used, so a 32-bit boot protocol need
+to be defined.
+
+In 32-bit boot protocol, the first step in loading a Linux kernel
+should still be to load the real-mode code and then examine the kernel
+header at offset 0x01f1. But, it is not necessary to load all
+real-mode code, just first 4K bytes traditionally known as "zero page"
+is needed.
+
+In addition to read/modify/write kernel header of the zero page as
+that of 16-bit boot protocol, the boot loader should fill the
+following additional fields of the zero page too.
+
+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)
+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
+
+After loading and setuping the zero page, the boot loader can load the
+32/64-bit kernel in the same way as that of 16-bit boot protocol.
+
+In 32-bit boot protocol, the kernel is started by jumping to the
+32-bit kernel entry point, which is the start address of loaded
+32/64-bit kernel.
+
+At entry, the CPU must be in 32-bit protected mode with paging
+disabled; the CS and DS must be 4G flat segments; %esi holds the base
+address of the "zero page"; %esp, %ebp, %edi should be zero.
-
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