kexec: reuse 1st kernel as kexec/kdump kernel?

[Vivek Goyal]

On Tue, Jan 07, 2014 at 10:34:06AM +0800, Dave Young wrote:
> Hi, all
> 
> I have a question in mind: can we copy and prepare kexec kernel while
> normal booting?
> 
> Just like below wild idea:
> 
> Kernel uncompress itself (assume kernel is relocatable)
> -> copy the kernel image somewhere for backup
>   -> reserver crashkernel memory
>     -> copy the backuped kernel image/initrd image to reserved memory
>       -> copy the purgatory which can be embedded in elf section?
>         -> prepare the e820 memory ranges which is for kdump kernel
> 
> So userspace only need to call kexec reboot, kexec_load is not necessary.
> The initrd for kdump should be different, but we can add some different logic
> which will be only for kdump and it can be skipped in normal boot.
> 
> Is it doable?

What's the advantage of doing all this? Why are you trying to skip load
step.

Thanks
Vivek