kexec explictly (in --help and man page) reports to support multiboot format images. That doesn't work for at least some subset of seemingly proper multiboot images. For some context, the goal essentially the same as discussed at [1]. Has anyone seen this work? I've just checked with git at current tip (401e037e5e9527134c594b8923342a69ff38b7cb) and see the same problem. mbchk is from 'multiboot' package (built from source). Also note that 'qemu-system-x86_64' loads this multiboot image properly with 'qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel' $ dpkg-query --show kexec-tools kexec-tools 1:2.0.4-1ubuntu1 $ mbchk /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img: The Multiboot header is found at the offset 2416. /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img: Page alignment is turned off. /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img: Memory information is turned off. /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img: Address fields is turned on. /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img: All checks passed. $ sudo ./build.out/sbin/kexec --debug --type multiboot-x86 /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img kernel: 0xe19010 kernel_size: 0x6315 MEMORY RANGES 0000000000000100-000000000009f000 (0) 000000000009f000-00000000000a0000 (1) 00000000000e7000-0000000000100000 (1) 0000000000100000-00000000bf760000 (0) 00000000bf76e000-00000000bf770000 (1) 00000000bf770000-00000000bf77e000 (2) 00000000bf77e000-00000000bf7d0000 (3) 00000000bf7d0000-00000000bf7e0000 (1) 00000000bf7ec000-00000000c0000000 (1) 00000000e0000000-00000000f0000000 (1) 00000000fee00000-00000000fee01000 (1) 00000000ffc00000-0000000100000000 (1) 0000000100000000-0000000c40000000 (0) Cannot determine the file type of /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img $ kexec --debug --type multiboot-x86 /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img kernel: 0x1767010 kernel_size: 6315 MEMORY RANGES 0000000000000100-000000000009f000 (0) 000000000009f000-00000000000a0000 (1) 00000000000e7000-0000000000100000 (1) 0000000000100000-00000000bf760000 (0) 00000000bf76e000-00000000bf770000 (1) 00000000bf770000-00000000bf77e000 (2) 00000000bf77e000-00000000bf7d0000 (3) 00000000bf7d0000-00000000bf7e0000 (1) 00000000bf7ec000-00000000c0000000 (1) 00000000e0000000-00000000f0000000 (1) 00000000fee00000-00000000fee01000 (1) 00000000ffc00000-0000000100000000 (1) 0000000100000000-0000000c40000000 (0) Cannot determine the file type of /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img Note, I also I filed an ubuntu bug at http://pad.lv/1297316 . https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kexec-tools/+bug/1297316
