[PATCH 11/15] purgatory: Core purgatory functionality

[H. Peter Anvin]

On 08/11/2014 10:40 AM, Shaun Ruffell wrote:
> FYI, it looks like the following patch (committed in
> 8fc5b4d4121c95482b2583) adds a new requirement to use at least gcc
> 4.4 to build the kernel?

Well, to build the kernel with that particular new functionality
enabled, yes.

However...

> The above "-mcmodel=large" compiler flag produces the following output on GCC 4.1.2.
> 
>   $ make modules_prepare ; gcc --version
>     CHK     include/config/kernel.release
>     CHK     include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
>     CHK     include/generated/utsrelease.h
>     CC      arch/x86/purgatory/purgatory.o
>   arch/x86/purgatory/purgatory.c:1: sorry, unimplemented: code model ‘large’ not supported yet
>   make[1]: *** [arch/x86/purgatory/purgatory.o] Error 1
>   make: *** [archprepare] Error 2
>   gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-54)
>   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>   This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
>   warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
> 
> I did a quick search for a discussion the indicates this compiler is now
> officially too old to build the kernel but did not find one.
> 
> If this is required, maybe Documentation/Changes needs to be updated
> with the new minimum required version?

... I'm having a very, very hard time to picture a reason why the
"large" model would be necessary or even desirable for the purgatory
code.  The "small PIC" model seem to fit much better...

	-hpa