• H. Peter Anvin's avatar
    x86: add extension fields for bootloader type and version · 5031296c
    H. Peter Anvin authored
    A long ago, in days of yore, it all began with a god named Thor.
    There were vikings and boats and some plans for a Linux kernel
    header.  Unfortunately, a single 8-bit field was used for bootloader
    type and version.  This has generally worked without *too* much pain,
    but we're getting close to flat running out of ID fields.
    
    Add extension fields for both type and version.  The type will be
    extended if it the old field is 0xE; the version is a simple MSB
    extension.
    
    Keep /proc/sys/kernel/bootloader_type containing
    (type << 4) + (ver & 0xf) for backwards compatiblity, but also add
    /proc/sys/kernel/bootloader_version which contains the full version
    number.
    
    [ Impact: new feature to support more bootloaders ]
    Signed-off-by: default avatarH. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
    5031296c
header.S 8.09 KB