[PATCH 2/2] ARM: remove the 4x expansion presumption while decompressing the kernel

[Rob Herring]

On 02/17/2011 12:52 PM, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 10:51:56AM -0700, Grant Likely wrote:
>> As for knowing where it can relocate to, we already know (actually
>> current code just makes an assumption) about how long the kernel
>> proper image is and where it wants to live in the zImage's head.S.
>> Assuming enough ram, if r6 reflects the size of the zImage + the size
>> of the appended data then it should be good.
>
> That isn't a valid argument.  Just because "the decompressor already
> does it" does not mean that it'll work with ramdisks.  We've been
> lucky so far that it has worked with the kernel - and that's exactly
> what it is - luck.
>
> It works for a 1-2MB kernel.  A 16MB ramdisk is a completely different
> kettle of bytes.

The capability to add an initramfs into the kernel binary already exists 
within the kernel build system. The primary difference here is when the 
initramfs is added. Doing that after the kernel build is the more sane 
approach. For example, if you want to include kernel modules in your 
initramfs and a single image, the current method is kind of broken. You 
have to build the kernel once to build the modules, then build it again 
to update the initramfs.

If the ramdisk size is the only issue, then you would be okay with 
adding couple of KB of dtb image?

Rob

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