[syslinux] Re: Does pxelinux work with >1GB RAM?

H. J. Lu hjl at lucon.org
Mon Oct 7 15:20:49 PDT 2002


On Mon, Oct 07, 2002 at 02:19:21PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> H. J. Lu wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 07, 2002 at 12:18:39PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> > 
> >>>I looked at Intel PXE. It did something strange with stack before
> >>>calling the main PXE function.
> >>>
> >>
> >>I'm sure it does, but that's not horrendously specific.
> > 
> > 
> > When Intel PXE client calls the PXE function, it switches stack to
> > SS:SP = 0:0x7C00 and switches back afterwards.
> > 
> 
> How wonderfully original.  It might be worthwhile to use a low stack in
> PXELINUX just like SYSLINUX and ISOLINUX uses.  I'll try to release a
> test version to see if that works.
> 

I am not sure if the stack usage is really an issue. Intel PXE doesn't
use any memory below 3MB. However, pxelinux uses memory between 0x1000
and 0x7c00 for various buffers. According to PXE 2.1 spec, memory
between 0x500 and 0x7c00 are reserved. I don't know if it makes a 
difference.


H.J.



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