Subject: Re: config & endianness
To: Quentin Garnier <cube@cubidou.net>
From: Garrett D'Amore <garrett_damore@tadpole.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 03/06/2006 08:46:03
Quentin Garnier wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 08:27:36AM -0800, Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>   
>> Hmm.... we now have some kernel configs in evbmips that do not make
>> sense for either big or little endian.
>>
>>     * OMSAL and MTX-1 are always little endian
>>     * forthcoming ATHEROS AR531x based systems will always be big endian
>>     * DBAU1XXX can be either endian (jumper selectable)
>>     * Malta/PB1XXX?  probably also jumper selectable
>>
>> Is there a way to establish stuff in config so that:
>>
>>     1) an attempt to build a kernel with endianness that doesn't make
>> sense fails in config(8), AND
>>     
>
> I don't really understand that.  How is config(1) supposed to know what
> endianness it is supposed to build for?  You want to flag it when it is
> compiled?  Currently, config(1) is arch-agnostic, i.e. you can use the
> same binary for any arch.
>
>   
I'm not talking about config(1) itself, rather I'm talking about having
the machinery in the kernel configuration files for this.  So if you try
to build an evbmips-eb kernel using an MTX-1 config, it should fail. 
Because this architecture (MTX-1) can *only* run little endian.

-- 
Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer
Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division,
General Dynamics C4 Systems
http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/
Phone: 951 325-2134  Fax: 951 325-2191