1 Linux kernel release 2.3.xx for the IA-64 Platform
3 These are the release notes for Linux version 2.3 for IA-64
4 platform. This document provides information specific to IA-64
5 ONLY, to get additional information about the Linux kernel also
6 read the original Linux README provided with the kernel.
10 - IA-64 kernel installation is the same as the other platforms, see
11 original README for details.
16 Compiling and running this kernel requires an IA-64 compliant GCC
17 compiler. And various software packages also compiled with an
18 IA-64 compliant GCC compiler.
21 CONFIGURING the kernel:
23 Configuration is the same, see original README for details.
28 - Compiling this kernel doesn't differ from other platform so read
29 the original README for details BUT make sure you have an IA-64
30 compliant GCC compiler.
34 - Security related issues:
36 o mmap needs to check whether mapping would overlap with the
37 address-space hole in a region or whether the mapping would be
38 across regions. In both cases, mmap should fail.
40 o ptrace is a huge security hole right now as it does not reject
41 writing to security sensitive bits (such as the PSR!).
45 o Kernel modules aren't supported yet.
47 o For non-RT signals, siginfo isn't passed through from the kernel
48 to the point where the signal is actually delivered. Also, we
49 should make sure the siginfo data is compliant with the UNIX
52 o Hardly any performance tuning has been done. Obvious targets
53 include the library routines (memcpy, IP checksum, etc.). Less
54 obvious targets include making sure we don't flush the TLB
55 needlessly, etc. Also, the TLB handlers should probably try to
56 do a speculative load from the virtually mapped linear page
57 table and only if that fails fall back on walking the page table
60 o Discontiguous large memory support; memory above 4GB will be
61 discontiguous since the 4GB-64MB is reserved for firmware and I/O
64 o Correct mapping for PAL runtime code; PAL code needs to be
67 o Make current IRQ/IOSAPIC handling closer to IA32 such as,
68 disable/enable interrupts, use of INPROGRESS flag etc.
70 o clone system call implementation; needs to setup proper backing
73 o SMP locks cleanup/optimization
75 o IA32 support. Currently experimental. It mostly works but
76 there are problems with some dynamically loaded programs.