kernel_optimize_test/init
Ronald G. Minnich 694cfd87b0 x86/setup: Add an initrdmem= option to specify initrd physical address
Add the initrdmem option:

  initrdmem=ss[KMG],nn[KMG]

which is used to specify the physical address of the initrd, almost
always an address in FLASH. Also add code for x86 to use the existing
phys_init_start and phys_init_size variables in the kernel.

This is useful in cases where a kernel and an initrd is placed in FLASH,
but there is no firmware file system structure in the FLASH.

One such situation occurs when unused FLASH space on UEFI systems has
been reclaimed by, e.g., taking it from the Management Engine. For
example, on many systems, the ME is given half the FLASH part; not only
is 2.75M of an 8M part unused; but 10.75M of a 16M part is unused. This
space can be used to contain an initrd, but need to tell Linux where it
is.

This space is "raw": due to, e.g., UEFI limitations: it can not be added
to UEFI firmware volumes without rebuilding UEFI from source or writing
a UEFI device driver. It can be referenced only as a physical address
and size.

At the same time, if a kernel can be "netbooted" or loaded from GRUB or
syslinux, the option of not using the physical address specification
should be available.

Then, it is easy to boot the kernel and provide an initrd; or boot the
the kernel and let it use the initrd in FLASH. In practice, this has
proven to be very helpful when integrating Linux into FLASH on x86.

Hence, the most flexible and convenient path is to enable the initrdmem
command line option in a way that it is the last choice tried.

For example, on the DigitalLoggers Atomic Pi, an image into FLASH can be
burnt in with a built-in command line which includes:

  initrdmem=0xff968000,0x200000

which specifies a location and size.

 [ bp: Massage commit message, make it passive. ]

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding style fixes]
Signed-off-by: Ronald G. Minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Reviewed-by: H. Peter Anvin (Intel) <hpa@zytor.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CAP6exYLK11rhreX=6QPyDQmW7wPHsKNEFtXE47pjx41xS6O7-A@mail.gmail.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200426011021.1cskg0AGd%akpm@linux-foundation.org
2020-04-27 09:28:16 +02:00
..
calibrate.c License cleanup: add SPDX GPL-2.0 license identifier to files with no license 2017-11-02 11:10:55 +01:00
do_mounts_initrd.c x86/setup: Add an initrdmem= option to specify initrd physical address 2020-04-27 09:28:16 +02:00
do_mounts_md.c init/: remove ineffective sparse disabling 2018-08-22 10:52:49 -07:00
do_mounts_rd.c init/: remove ineffective sparse disabling 2018-08-22 10:52:49 -07:00
do_mounts.c block: remove __bdevname 2020-03-24 07:57:07 -06:00
do_mounts.h fs: add do_mknodat() helper and ksys_mknod() wrapper; remove in-kernel calls to syscall 2018-04-02 20:15:56 +02:00
init_task.c exec: Add exec_update_mutex to replace cred_guard_mutex 2020-03-25 10:03:36 -05:00
initramfs.c arm64: use generic free_initrd_mem() 2019-10-16 13:55:25 +01:00
Kconfig arm64 fixes: 2020-04-09 11:04:16 -07:00
main.c printk: queue wake_up_klogd irq_work only if per-CPU areas are ready 2020-04-10 13:18:57 -07:00
Makefile kbuild: do not pass $(KBUILD_CFLAGS) to scripts/mkcompile_h 2020-04-09 00:13:45 +09:00
noinitramfs.c treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 167 2019-05-30 11:26:39 -07:00
version.c treewide: Add SPDX license identifier for missed files 2019-05-21 10:50:45 +02:00