[Xen-devel] [PATCH] Remove NX bit from x86-64 pages

[Jerone Young <jyoung5@xxxxxxxxxx>]

So after a sometime of looking at the code to solve bugzilla #75
http://bugzilla.xensource.com/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=75

I started to look for strange avenues of why this problem was happening.
Well I found it...on IBM hardware with Intel EM64T cpus the ability for
the CPU to understand the NX bit is disabled by default. I had no idea
this was even possible. Now on AMD 64bit CPUs the CPU always understands
the bit and the OS tells it to enforce it or not. Given this I'm betting
that not just IBM hardware but hardware from other vendors may also ship
with it turned off. 

Our problem is that we assume that all x86-64 CPUs will understand this
bit. We also do not have support fully implemented to take advantage of
this bit. A patch from Scott Parish showed this by accident (his patch
removed the NX bit from the pages)...which is how David Barrera the
ability to boot it. So until full nx support is to go in we should
remove it from from the pages for now too avoid strange issues as
bugzilla #75....otherwise they will flood in.

The patch attached removes the bit:

Signed-off-by: Jerone Young <jyoung5@xxxxxxxxxx>

Attachment: rm_nx_patch.diff
Description: Text Data

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