Re: Linux loading Linux

From: Erik Arjan Hendriks (hendriks@scyld.com)
Date: Mon Mar 20 2000 - 20:23:07 EST


I have done some work on Linux loading Linux...

I have written a kernel module that loads and starts a new Linux
kernel on Linux. The code it completely contained in a module so no
kernel modifications are required at all. The code I have is
built/tested against Linux 2.2.x but I think it should be pretty
portable to other kernel versions since it doesn't need much more than
get_free_page() from the existing kernel. I have tested this code on
the machines at my disposal and it seems to work fine.

Quick list of features:
 * It's a kernel module - no kernel patches
 * Loads initial ram disks along with the kernel image.
 * Loads kernel command lines.

This stuff starts a new kernel by returning to real mode first. The
code and more documentation (including technical) is available at:
http://www.scyld.com/software/monte.html

(I call it two kernel monte after the game three card monte. Two is
easier than three. It's best to start easy.)

A limitation right now is that it doesn't handle reboots of SMP boxes.
That seems pretty hairy. Any comments on the code and/or suggestions
about what to do with SMP would be greatly appreciated.

- Erik
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik Arjan Hendriks Senior Technology Officer
hendriks@scyld.com Scyld Computing Corporation

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