NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/os/linux/10492

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 1.8 KB | 48 lines

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: [e-mail] (David Metcalfe)
Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!demon!prism.demon.co.uk!david
ReplyTo: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: 0.97pl4 breaks SCSI extended partition code
References: <[e-mail]>
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Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:46:27 +0000
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Eric Youngdale) writes:

>     No, the problem is more insidious than that.  Drew kind of hinted
> at it when he swore at the bootstrap loader, but I will explain.
>
>     Previously, the array sd_sizes was uninitialized, which means that
> it was in the bss section.  A normal C program can count on data items
> in the bss section as being initialized to 0, but this is not always the
> case with the kernel.  It really depends a lot on the bootstrap loader.
> It appears as if lilo is able to zero the bss section, but shoelace does not.
> As I recall, if you boot your kernel from a floppy, then the bss is not cleared
> as well.  I could be all wet on this, though.
>
< rest deleted >

Well I still boot from a floppy, so that explains why I got caught
this time around.  It would appear that although the bss section can
contain anything (if it is not initialised), it contains the same
data for a particular version of the kernel.  I guess this is not
altogether surprising considering the computer has just been
rebooted.

Thanks for the very complete explanation.

David

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David Metcalfe          [e-mail]
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