Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH for-4.12 v2 2/2] xen/arm: Stop relocating Xen

[Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On 14/12/2018 17:24, Andrii Anisov wrote:
> On 14.12.18 18:26, Julien Grall wrote:
> > I don't understand how you came up with the conclusion that 128MB will be
> > removed from Dom0. We only have the requirement that the first bank is at least
> > 128MB. So can you expand it?
> IIRC Linux kernel requires that the machine RAM start must be 128MB aligned.
Please try to reference the documentation (or code if lack of documentation) 
when making such statement.
AFAICT, Linux 32-bit [1] imposes the kernel to be loaded in the first 128MB of 
RAM. Nothing about the 128MB aligned RAM. Linux 64-bit [1] requires to be loaded 
at a 2MB aligned address.
So technically allocating the RAM using a 2MB alignment should be enough. Yet we 
need to make sure the first bank is at least 128MB.
> Look at `allocate_memory_11()`, `min_low_order` variable usage. It affects all 
> low memory 1:1 allocation and makes all low memory banks 128MB aligned both 
> start and end.
> So that having a module in a low memory poisons the whole 128MB region.
That's definitely an unwanted behavior, but this is not related to the patch 
itself. As soon as you hand memory to the allocator, memory can be allocated at 
any place in the memory. I am still unsure whether the alignment is due to the 
algorithm in allocate_memory_11() or because of the order we pass to the allocator.
Until we fix it, the best recommendation is to keep all the modules close 
together at the beginning of the RAM. So you only "waste" 128MB region. I can 
add this recommendation in the commit message and potentially documentation.
Cheers,

[1] Documentation/arm/Booting
[2] Documentation/arm64/booting.txt

--
Julien Grall

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