x86, realmode: new infrastructure for realmode code [LWN.net]

From:		Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@intel.com>
To:		linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject:		[PATCH 00/23] x86, realmode: new infrastructure for realmode code
Date:		Tue, 8 May 2012 21:22:23 +0300
Message-ID:		<1336501366-28617-1-git-send-email-jarkko.sakkinen@intel.com>
Cc:		linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org, Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>, Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>, Joseph Cihula <joseph.cihula@intel.com>, Shane Wang <shane.wang@intel.com>, hpa@linux.intel.com, Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@intel.com>
Archive-link:		Article, Thread

I've been working together with H. Peter Anvin in order
replace the ad-hoc real-mode code inside .x86_trampoline
section with an encapsulated binary that is fully relocatable
to any memory location under 1MB. Everything that is needs to
be relocated is relocated during initialization.

Benefits:
- Simplifies things. Real-mode code does not have to find its
own location any more. This makes maintaining and extending 
this code much nicer experience.
- Cleans up code base a lot. Now real-mode code is encapsulated
from kernel both in source tree and in vmlinux.
- We can set proper permissions to pages of text, data/bss
and rodata. Before, .x86_trampoline had just rwx permissions.
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