x86 boot: document for 32 bit boot protocol

This patch documents the 32-bit boot protocol of x86. It has been used
by Kexec and LinuxBIOS. This patch is based on the proposal of Peter
Anvin.

Signed-off-by: Huang Ying <ying.huang@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>

1 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/i386/boot.txt b/Documentation/i386/boot.txt
index 2f75e750e4f5..fc49b79bc1ab 100644
--- a/Documentation/i386/boot.txt
+++ b/Documentation/i386/boot.txt
@@ -785,3 +785,41 @@ IMPORTANT: All the hooks are required to preserve %esp, %ebp, %esi and
         After completing your hook, you should jump to the address
         that was in this field before your boot loader overwrote it
         (relocated, if appropriate.)
+
+
+**** 32-bit BOOT PROTOCOL
+
+For machine with some new BIOS other than legacy BIOS, such as EFI,
+LinuxBIOS, etc, and kexec, the 16-bit real mode setup code in kernel
+based on legacy BIOS can not be used, so a 32-bit boot protocol needs
+to be defined.
+
+In 32-bit boot protocol, the first step in loading a Linux kernel
+should be to setup the boot parameters (struct boot_params,
+traditionally known as "zero page"). The memory for struct boot_params
+should be allocated and initialized to all zero. Then the setup header
+from offset 0x01f1 of kernel image on should be loaded into struct
+boot_params and examined. The end of setup header can be calculated as
+follow:
+
+        0x0202 + byte value at offset 0x0201
+
+In addition to read/modify/write the setup header of the struct
+boot_params as that of 16-bit boot protocol, the boot loader should
+also fill the additional fields of the struct boot_params as that
+described in zero-page.txt.
+
+After setupping the struct boot_params, the boot loader can load the
+32/64-bit kernel in the same way as that of 16-bit boot protocol.
+
+In 32-bit boot protocol, the kernel is started by jumping to the
+32-bit kernel entry point, which is the start address of loaded
+32/64-bit kernel.
+
+At entry, the CPU must be in 32-bit protected mode with paging
+disabled; a GDT must be loaded with the descriptors for selectors
+__BOOT_CS(0x10) and __BOOT_DS(0x18); both descriptors must be 4G flat
+segment; __BOOS_CS must have execute/read permission, and __BOOT_DS
+must have read/write permission; CS must be __BOOT_CS and DS, ES, SS
+must be __BOOT_DS; interrupt must be disabled; %esi must hold the base
+address of the struct boot_params; %ebp, %edi and %ebx must be zero.