[U-Boot] zImage on ARM

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Fri Sep 3 00:45:42 CEST 2010


Dear Steve Sakoman,

In message <AANLkTi=VbVrSfP1rLGGsEGuWH9kwVy_3TzU_QRQRVD87 at mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
> I have a client that has asked me to look into loading zImage files
> instead of uImage for some ARM based boards.

Why?

> Any words of advice or warning in doing something similar for ARM?

No. IMO it makes little sense.

> Anyone familiar with the history of why uImage is the preferred
> format?  Just trying to learn . . .

uImage, when done correctly, avoids that you have to add a pre-loader
(including all of gzip and what else is needed to copy the uncom-
pressed image to it's final location in RAM) to each and every kernel
image - which is just a waste of time and resources as we already
have all that code present in U-Boot.

Note that the mainline ARM kernel does not make use of this; instead,
it adds the preloader anyway.  I never understood why.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.


More information about the U-Boot mailing list