linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] trim memory not covered by WB MTRRs

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Message-ID: <86802c440706211240s27d58679k43cee4488ce8a70e@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:40:58 -0700
From:	"Yinghai Lu" <yhlu.kernel@...il.com>
To:	"Jesse Barnes" <jesse.barnes@...el.com>
Cc:	"Andi Kleen" <andi@...stfloor.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	"Justin Piszcz" <jpiszcz@...idpixels.com>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] trim memory not covered by WB MTRRs

On 6/7/07, Jesse Barnes <jesse.barnes@...el.com> wrote:
> On some machines, buggy BIOSes don't properly setup WB MTRRs to
> cover all available RAM, meaning the last few megs (or even gigs)
> of memory will be marked uncached.  Since Linux tends to allocate
> from high memory addresses first, this causes the machine to be
> unusably slow as soon as the kernel starts really using memory
> (i.e. right around init time).
>
> This patch works around the problem by scanning the MTRRs at
> boot and figuring out whether the current end_pfn value (setup
> by early e820 code) goes beyond the highest WB MTRR range, and
> if so, trimming it to match.  A fairly obnoxious KERN_WARNING
> is printed too, letting the user know that not all of their
> memory is available due to a likely BIOS bug.
>
> Something similar could be done on i386 if needed, but the boot
> ordering would be slightly different, since the MTRR code on i386
> depends on the boot_cpu_data structure being setup.
>
> This patch incorporates the feedback from Eric and Andi:
>   - use MAX_VAR_RANGES instead of NUM_VAR_RANGES
>   - move array declaration to header file as an extern
>   - add command line disable option "disable_mtrr_trim"
>   - don't run the trim code if the MTRR default type is cacheable
>   - don't run the trim code on non-Intel machines
>
> Justin, feel free to test again if you have time and add your
> "Tested-by" signoff.
>
> Andi, as for large pages, do you think this is ok as is, or should
> I trim a larger granularity?  If so, what granularity?
>
> Signed-off-by:  Jesse Barnes <jesse.barnes@...el.com>
>
> Thanks,
> Jesse
>

NAK.

for AMD Rev F Opteron later CPU, BIOS will not set WB in MTRR for 4G above mem.

This patch will get rid of those RAM.

YH
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