[ECOS] At redboot, why go command can't execute a linux kernel

[Gary Thomas]

On Tue, 2004-10-19 at 01:26, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 19, 2004 at 02:16:00AM -0400, Daniel Yu wrote:
> > Hi all:
> > 	I am using the ixp425 + coyote. After porting the redboot to the
> > machine, all things run well. But , when i load the linux kernel into ram
> > and use "go" command to run it, the screen freezed forever. The only way to
> > run linux kernel on my machine is the "exec" command. What's wrong with it?
> > At the previous board: coyote based machine, "go" and "exec" command both
> > can run the linux kernel.
> 
> Go is not intended to start the Linux kernel. If it did work, that was
> only by chance. The only supported way to start the Linux kernel is
> via exec.

This is why there are two commands :-)  For most platforms, the ARM
included, Linux assumes that memory management has been turned off
and some other things set up by the boot loader (RedBoot in this case)
before starting.  The 'go' command simply jumps into a piece of code
whereas the 'exec' command sets up the appropriate boot time structures,
turns off the MMU, etc.

-- 
Gary Thomas <gary@mlbassoc.com>
MLB Associates


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