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Linux 2.4.x Initialization for IA-32 HOWTO

Randy Dunlap, rddunlap@ieee.org

v1.0, 2001-05-17

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This document contains a description of the Linux 2.4 kernel initialization sequence on IA-32 processors.

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1. Introduction

• 1.1 Overview
• 1.2 This document
• 1.3 Contributions
• 1.4 Trademarks
• 1.5 License

2. Linux init ("ASCII art")

3. Linux early setup

• 3.1 IA-32 Kernel Setup
• 3.2 Video Setup

4. Linux architecture-specific initialization

• 4.1 startup_32:
• 4.2 Set segment registers to known values
• 4.3 SMP BSP (Bootstrap Processor) check
• 4.4 Initialize page tables
• 4.5 Enable paging
• 4.6 Clear BSS
• 4.7 32-bit setup
• 4.8 Copy boot parameters and command line out of the way
• 4.9 checkCPUtype
• 4.10 Count this processor
• 4.11 Load descriptor table pointer registers
• 4.12 Start other processors

5. Linux architecture-independent initialization

• 5.1 start_kernel:
• 5.2 setup_arch
• 5.3 init thread
• 5.4 do_basic_setup {part of the init thread}

6. Glossary

7. References

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