• Jan Beulich's avatar
    [PATCH] i386: fix MTRR code · 365bff80
    Jan Beulich authored
    Until not so long ago, there were system log messages pointing to
    inconsistent MTRR setup of the video frame buffer caused by the way vesafb
    and X worked. While vesafb was fixed meanwhile, I believe fixing it there
    only hides a shortcoming in the MTRR code itself, in that that code is not
    symmetric with respect to the ordering of attempts to set up two (or more)
    regions where one contains the other. In the current shape, it permits
    only setting up sub-regions of pre-exisiting ones. The patch below makes
    this symmetric.
    
    While working on that I noticed a few more inconsistencies in that code,
    namely
    - use of 'unsigned int' for sizes in many, but not all places (the patch
      is converting this to use 'unsigned long' everywhere, which specifically
      might be necessary for x86-64 once a processor supporting more than 44
      physical address bits would become available)
    - the code to correct inconsistent settings during secondary processor
      startup tried (if necessary) to correct, among other things, the value
      in IA32_MTRR_DEF_TYPE, however the newly computed value would never get
      used (i.e. stored in the respective MSR)
    - the generic range validation code checked that the end of the
      to-be-added range would be above 1MB; the value checked should have been
      the start of the range
    - when contained regions are detected, previously this was allowed only
      when the old region was uncacheable; this can be symmetric (i.e. the new
      region can also be uncacheable) and even further as per Intel's
      documentation write-trough and write-back for either region is also
      compatible with the respective opposite in the other
    Signed-off-by: default avatarJan Beulich <jbeulich@novell.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAndi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
    365bff80
mtrr.h 2.5 KB