BinUtils for kernel

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Sorav Bansal <sbansal@stanford.edu> writes:

> > >   I was wondering if there exist tools to read the kernel image binaries
> > > (compiled with -g).
> > >
> > >   binutils commands like addr2line complain about the kernel image being
> > > in unrecognized format (understandably)
> >
> > Which kernel?  What format is it in?
> 
> 
> kernel is linux 2.4.18 (distributed with Debian)
> 
> "file vmlinuz-2.4.18" gives the following information:
> vmlinuz-2.4.18: Linux kernel x86 boot executable RO-rootFS,
> root_dev=0x301, Normal VGA

vmlinuz is a compressed Linux kernel.  The binutils don't understand
that format directly.  I believe that a normal Linux build will
provide the corresponding uncompressed kernel as "vmlinux-2.4.18".
The binutils should understand that file format.

Adding support for the vmlinuz format would probably be possible, if
anybody were sufficiently motivated.

Ian