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Old 11-08-2010, 03:23 AM   #1
Richard.Yang
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Registered: Sep 2008
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What is the first instruction of Arm Linux?


Hi all

I am curious about what is the first instruction of the Arm Linux?

From some web, I found they say the first instruction is Arm Linux is just the start section in compressed/head.S. While I still curious why?

From Uboot log, I found the Uboot will download the kernel zImage to an address, 0xc0008000, and then just jump to this address.

Then I try to figure out what the zImage is composed? Below two commands are used to build the zImage.
Code:
arm-linux-ld -EL    --defsym zreladdr=0x50008000 --defsym params_phys=0x50000100 -p --no-undefined -X /usr/local/arm/4.4.1/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-linux-gnueabi/4.4.1/libgcc.a -T arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds arch/arm/boot/compressed/head.o arch/arm/boot/compressed/piggy.o arch/arm/boot/compressed/misc.o -o arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux

arm-linux-objcopy -O binary -R .note -R .note.gnu.build-id -R .comment -S  arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux arch/arm/boot/zImage
If I don't make a mistake, the objcopy just remove some section, .note, .note.gnu.build-id? So this doestn't affect the image a lot? So the important link thing is done by the first command?

From the lds script,
Code:
  .text : {
    _start = .;
    *(.start)
    *(.text)
    *(.text.*)
    *(.fixup)
    *(.gnu.warning)
    *(.rodata)
    *(.rodata.*)
    *(.glue_7)
    *(.glue_7t)
    *(.piggydata)
    . = ALIGN(4);
  }
the first section is the "start" section. While in head.S, there is a "start" section. This is the reason why the first instruction is in head.S?
 
Old 11-08-2010, 03:27 AM   #2
Richard.Yang
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Posts: 106

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BTW, I don't know where these value are set?
Code:
LC0:		.word	LC0			@ r1
		.word	__bss_start		@ r2
		.word	_end			@ r3
		.word	zreladdr		@ r4
		.word	_start			@ r5
		.word	_got_start		@ r6
		.word	_got_end		@ ip
		.word	user_stack+4096		@ sp
seems they are used in kernel.

Last edited by Richard.Yang; 11-08-2010 at 07:23 AM.
 
  


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