How Big of a Kernel Can SCO Xenix Boot?

Adnan Yaqub adnan at sgtech.uucp
Thu Apr 4 23:58:04 AEST 1991


I need some information on how SCO Xenix's bootstrap program (boot)
works.  Specifically, what are the size restrictions on the kernels it
can boot.  Here is the problem.

Someone I am trying to help has two kernels, one of which will boot,
and the other which won't.  He says that when he tries to boot the one
that fails, the bootstrap program seems to start loading the kernel
in, and then returns to the boot: prompt.  The size of the kernel
which does boot is:
	288588 + 79648 + 207960 = 576196 = 0x8cac4
while the unbootable one is:
	288588 + 79648 + 208680 = 576916 = 0x8cd94

I tried to duplicate the problem buy linking into a vanilla kernel an
object file which defines some large arrays.  I found that I could
boot a kernel with the following size:
	242192 + 39536 + 543732 = 825460 = 0xc9874
while when I tried to boot a kernel with this size:
	242192 + 39536 + 547828 = 829556 = 0xca874
I got the error message:
	invalid xs_rbase!
and the bootstrap returned to the boot: prompt.

Can someone please tell me what is going on?  What can boot boot?

Thanks.
--
Adnan Yaqub (adnan at sgtech.uucp)
Star Gate Technologies
29300 Aurora Rd, Solon, OH, 44139, USA, +1 216 349 1860



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