linux-kernel - Re: [RFC v1 4/8] x86/init: add linker table support

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Message-ID: <569FFEEE.5090600@zytor.com>
Date:	Wed, 20 Jan 2016 13:41:02 -0800
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...not-panic.com>,
	Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>,
	Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com>,
	Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@...rix.com>,
	Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@...citrix.com>
Cc:	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>, mcb30@...e.org,
	Juergen Gross <jgross@...e.com>,
	Jan Beulich <JBeulich@...e.com>, joro@...tes.org,
	Andrey Ryabinin <ryabinin.a.a@...il.com>,
	andreyknvl@...gle.com, long.wanglong@...wei.com,
	qiuxishi@...wei.com, aryabinin@...tuozzo.com,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@....samsung.com>,
	Valentin Rothberg <valentinrothberg@...il.com>,
	Peter Senna Tschudin <peter.senna@...il.com>,
	X86 ML <x86@...nel.org>,
	"xen-devel@...ts.xensource.com" <xen-devel@...ts.xensource.com>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC v1 4/8] x86/init: add linker table support

On 01/20/16 13:33, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> 
> That's correct for PV and PVH, likewise when qemu is required for HVM
> qemu could set it. I have the qemu change done but that should only
> cover HVM. A common place to set this as well could be the hypervisor,
> but currently the hypervisor doesn't set any boot_params, instead a
> generic struct is passed and the kernel code (for any OS) is expected
> to interpret this and then set the required values for the OS in the
> init path. Long term though if we wanted to merge init further one way
> could be to have the hypervisor just set the zero page cleanly for the
> different modes. If we needed more data other than the
> hardware_subarch we also have the hardware_subarch_data, that's a u64
> , and how that is used would be up to the subarch. In Xen's case it
> could do what it wants with it. That would still mean perhaps defining
> as part of a Xen boot protocol a place where xen specific code can
> count on finding more Xen data passed by the hypervisor, the
> xen_start_info. That is, if we wanted to merge init paths this is
> something to consider.
> 
> One thing I considered on the question of who should set the zero page
> for Xen with the prospect of merging inits, or at least this subarch
> for both short term and long term are the obvious implications in
> terms of hypervisor / kernel / qemu combination requirements if the
> subarch is needed. Having it set in the kernel is an obvious immediate
> choice for PV / PVH but it means we can't merge init paths completely
> (down to asm inits), we'd still be able to merge some C init paths
> though, the first entry would still be different. Having the zero page
> set on the hypervisor would go long ways but it would mean a
> hypervisor change required.
> 
> These prospects are worth discussing, specially in light of Boris's
> hvmlite work.
> 

The above doesn't make sense to me.  hardware_subarch is really used
when the boot sequence is somehow nonstandard.  HVM probably doesn't
need that.

	-hpa