The bulk of the iPXE binary (the .textdata section) is physically
relocated at runtime to the top of the 32-bit address space in order
to allow space for an OS to be loaded. The relocation is achieved
with the assistance of segmentation: we adjust the code and data
segment bases so that the link-time addresses remain valid.
Segmentation is not available (for normal code and data segments) in
long mode. We choose to compile the C code with -mcmodel=kernel and
use a link-time address of 0xffffffffeb000000. This choice allows us
to identity-map the entirety of the 32-bit address space, and to alias
our chosen link-time address to the physical location of our .textdata
section. (This requires the .textdata section to always be aligned to
a page boundary.)
We simultaneously choose to set the 32-bit virtual address segment
bases such that the link-time addresses may simply be truncated to 32
bits in order to generate a valid 32-bit virtual address. This allows
symbols in .textdata to be trivially accessed by both 32-bit and
64-bit code.
There is no (sensible) way in 32-bit assembly code to generate the
required R_X86_64_32S relocation records for these truncated symbols.
However, subtracting the fixed constant 0xffffffff00000000 has the
same effect as truncation, and can be represented in a standard
R_X86_64_32 relocation record. We define the VIRTUAL() macro to
abstract away this truncation operation, and apply it to all
references by 32-bit (or 16-bit) assembly code to any symbols within
the .textdata section.
We define "virt_offset" for a 64-bit build as "the value to be added
to an address within .textdata in order to obtain its physical
address". With this definition, the low 32 bits of "virt_offset" can
be treated by 32-bit code as functionally equivalent to "virt_offset"
in a 32-bit build.
We define "text16" and "data16" for a 64-bit build as the physical
addresses of the .text16 and .data16 sections. Since a physical
address within the 32-bit address space may be used directly as a
64-bit virtual address (thanks to the identity map), this definition
provides the most natural access to variables in .text16 and .data16.
Note that this requires a minor adjustment in prot_to_real(), which
accesses .text16 using 32-bit virtual addresses.
Signed-off-by: Michael Brown <mcb30@ipxe.org>
elf2efi converts a suitable ELF executable (containing relocation
information, and with appropriate virtual addresses) into an EFI
executable. It is less tightly coupled with the gPXE build process
and, in particular, does not require the use of a hand-crafted PE
image header in efiprefix.S.
elf2efi correctly handles .bss sections, which significantly reduces
the size of the gPXE EFI executable.
[efi] Inhibit harmless ld warning on unresolved symbol check
The check for unresolved symbols does not explicitly specify an output
architecture format, and so causes a warning when building an i386 EFI
binary on an x86_64 platform. This warning is harmless, and
specifying the output architecture in multiple places is cumbersome,
so just inhibit the warning.
[x86_64] Add support for compilation as an x86_64 binary
Currently the only supported platform for x86_64 is EFI.
Building an EFI64 gPXE requires a version of gcc that supports
__attribute__((ms_abi)). This currently means a development build of
gcc; the feature should be present when gcc 4.4 is released.
In the meantime; you can grab a suitable gcc tree from
git://git.etherboot.org/scm/people/mcb30/gcc/.git
[efi] Add EFI image format and basic runtime environment
We have EFI APIs for CPU I/O, PCI I/O, timers, console I/O, user
access and user memory allocation.
EFI executables are created using the vanilla GNU toolchain, with the
EXE header handcrafted in assembly and relocations generated by a
custom efilink utility.