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authorMaxiwell S. Garcia <maxiwell@linux.ibm.com>2019-08-29 11:50:21 -0400
committerMichael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>2019-08-29 19:40:15 -0400
commit134cb3ab71c0736da0ec66d2cfd7f6ebba96c8cf (patch)
treec4528f487f5bb55a6f1b0887508db5ffcde2e4eb
parent70ed86f4de5bd74dd2d884dcd2f3275c4cfe665f (diff)
Documentation/powerpc: Add ELF note documentation
The ELF note documentation describes the types and descriptors to be used with the PowerPC namespace. Signed-off-by: Maxiwell S. Garcia <maxiwell@linux.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Claudio Carvalho <cclaudio@linux.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20190829155021.2915-3-maxiwell@linux.ibm.com
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1==========================
2ELF Note PowerPC Namespace
3==========================
4
5The PowerPC namespace in an ELF Note of the kernel binary is used to store
6capabilities and information which can be used by a bootloader or userland.
7
8Types and Descriptors
9---------------------
10
11The types to be used with the "PowerPC" namesapce are defined in the
12include/uapi/asm/elfnote.h
13
14 1) PPC_ELFNOTE_CAPABILITIES
15
16Define the capabilities supported/required by the kernel. This type uses a
17bitmap as "descriptor" field. Each bit is described below:
18
19- Ultravisor-capable bit (PowerNV only).
20
21 #define PPCCAP_ULTRAVISOR_BIT (1 << 0)
22
23 Indicate that the powerpc kernel binary knows how to run in an
24 ultravisor-enabled system.
25
26 In an ultravisor-enabled system, some machine resources are now controlled
27 by the ultravisor. If the kernel is not ultravisor-capable, but it ends up
28 being run on a machine with ultravisor, the kernel will probably crash
29 trying to access ultravisor resources. For instance, it may crash in early
30 boot trying to set the partition table entry 0.
31
32 In an ultravisor-enabled system, a bootloader could warn the user or prevent
33 the kernel from being run if the PowerPC ultravisor capability doesn't exist
34 or the Ultravisor-capable bit is not set.
35
36References
37----------
38
39arch/powerpc/include/asm/elfnote.h
40arch/powerpc/kernel/note.S
41
42