Re: [Qemu-devel] Allow ARMv7M to be started without a kernel

[Alexander Graf]

On 05.05.2011, at 11:56, Peter Maydell wrote:

> On 5 May 2011 09:23, Ben Leslie <address@hidden> wrote:
>> FWIW, the reason why I'm not using -kernel is that the current
>> way the armv7m code works, it expects the provided kernel to
>> be a full flash image including appropriate vector table, whereas
>> right now I just want to debug some stand-alone code, not the full
>> system, which the above gdb approach works perfectly for.
> 
> It would probably be better for the -kernel option to honour the
> entry point in the ELF file rather than insisting on full reset
> (and to try to load the reset SP from the vector table but not
> insist on that working). That is, we should support both "load
> this ELF image which is a full system image with a vector table"
> and "load this ELF image which is just a bare-metal (possibly
> semihosting) application".
> 
> The combination of v7M reset with image loading and the possibility
> of a debugger altering the pc/sp while the core is in reset is a bit
> complicated, though :-)
> 
> As an aside: I think QEMU should have an option which is "just
> load a plain ELF or raw binary, with no funny Linux-kernel-specific
> behaviour" rather than overloading -kernel to mean "if it's a
> raw image it's Linux and if it's an ELF file it's not".

Traditionally, -bios has been that one. -kernel is more of a real bootloader 
replacement, including all the weirdness a bootloader does :).


Alex