On Tue, Mar 01, 2016 at 03:51:57PM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote: > On Fri, 26 Feb 2016, Michael Cree wrote: > > >> Success with kernel 4.4.2, built entirely using the Debian package > >>configuration options with only two changes: machinetype set from generic to > >>SX164, and CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM=y. > >> Obviously I'm thinking that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM may be highly significant > >>here! > >Yeah, I'm not convinced. Looking at the kernel Kconfig description it > >appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM allows one to boot directly from SRM, > >i.e., bypassing a bootloader such as aboot. Looking at the kernel source > >it appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM is in effect enabled when building > >a generic kernel. > >I'll do some testing to see if we can narrow it down to whether it > >is building for a generic kernel that's the problem, or whether it is > >indeed the CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM option. > > Hi, Michael, > > I went to test this myself (setting system type to generic instead of > setting ALPHA_SX164=y, and test for kernel start), and couldn't find > CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM. It appears that setting is not exposed by kconfig *unless* > you set a system type. > > Looking in the kernel source under arch/alpha/Kconfig, I see: > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > config ALPHA_SRM > bool "Use SRM as bootloader" if ALPHA_CABRIOLET || ALPHA_AVANTI_CH > || ALPHA_EB64P || ALPHA_PC164 || ALPHA_TAKARA || ALPHA_EB164 || ALPHA_ALCOR > || ALPHA_MIATA || ALPHA_LX164 || ALPHA_SX164 || ALPHA_NAUTILUS || > ALPHA_NONAME > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Do you think this behavior is correct?
As Lennert responded, and as I note above, CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM is in effect enabled when building a generic kernel. So I suspect the issue of the kernel not booting is related to the generic kernel, not to the ALPHA_SRM config option. I did try building a kernel to test but unfortunately the standard config I use is resulting in linker relocation errors on kernels 4.3 and 4.4, so I did not get very far. Cheers Michael.
