Compile Kernel "Bad Linux ARM zImage magic" on Calxeda (Highbank)

[javpicorel]

Hello everybody,

We recently bought a Calxeda machine which holds server boards of ECX-1000 SoCs. Each of these SoCs hold 4 x ARM Cortex A9 processors.

Because we want profile applications in these SoCs using the DSTREAM tool from ARM we need to recompile the kernel to enable some parameters to read the performance counters of these ARM processors. Since we have an Ubuntu OS running on each of these SoCs and a gcc/g++ running, there is no need for cross-compiling. Therefore, I downloaded the kernel and generated initrd.img and zImage files.

The way these SoCs boot is based on uboot. Basically, we place under /boot the vmlinuz and initrd.img files and in the beginning the machine reads the boot.scr file:

setenv bootargs console=ttyAMA0 root=UUID=a85a279c-c0a7-4f6b-ba52-73e2715654c7 nosplash
mw.l 800000 0 10000
scsi scan
ext2load scsi 0 0x800000 vmlinuz
ext2load scsi 0 0x1000000 initrd.img
bootz 0x800000 0x1000000:${filesize} 0x1000

Basically, it reads vmlinuz and initrd.img files. However, when I reboot the machine I get this error:

Starting Ubuntu...
scanning bus for devices...
Device 0: (2:0) Vendor: ATA Prod.: ST9250610NS Rev: SN03
Type: Hard Disk
Capacity: 2097151.8 MB = 2047.9 GB (-241 x 512)
Loading file "vmlinuz" from scsi device 0:1
3473076 bytes read
Loading file "initrd.img" from scsi device 0:1
1766773 bytes read
Bad Linux ARM zImage magic!

It shows the message "Bad Linux ARM zImage magic". This is really weird, it seems that it thinks that the kernel image is for another architecture and not for arm. I have the same error if I try to boot an image which is for x86.

I have tried booting different kernel versions but it doesn't work. Any feedback will be really appreciated. Thanks!

[Rubberman]

If you haven't sorted this out yet, you probably should look at the .config file and/or Makefile for the kernel to be sure that it is picking the correct architecture name tags. Anyway, it is likely some flag is causing the wrong magic number to be generated for the zimage file.