Re: [PATCH v5 1/5] mm: page_alloc: remain memblock_next_valid_pfn() on arm and arm64

[Jia He <hejianet@gmail.com>]

On 4/2/2018 3:53 PM, Ard Biesheuvel Wrote:
> On 2 April 2018 at 09:49, Jia He <hejianet@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 4/2/2018 2:55 PM, Ard Biesheuvel Wrote:
>>> On 2 April 2018 at 04:30, Jia He <hejianet@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Commit b92df1de5d28 ("mm: page_alloc: skip over regions of invalid pfns
>>>> where possible") optimized the loop in memmap_init_zone(). But it causes
>>>> possible panic bug. So Daniel Vacek reverted it later.
>>>>
>>>> But as suggested by Daniel Vacek, it is fine to using memblock to skip
>>>> gaps and finding next valid frame with CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_PFN_VALID.
>>>>
>>>> On arm and arm64, memblock is used by default. But generic version of
>>>> pfn_valid() is based on mem sections and memblock_next_valid_pfn() does
>>>> not always return the next valid one but skips more resulting in some
>>>> valid frames to be skipped (as if they were invalid). And that's why
>>>> kernel was eventually crashing on some !arm machines.
>>>>
>>>> And as verified by Eugeniu Rosca, arm can benifit from commit
>>>> b92df1de5d28. So remain the memblock_next_valid_pfn on arm{,64} and move
>>>> the related codes to arm64 arch directory.
>>>>
>>>> Suggested-by: Daniel Vacek <neelx@redhat.com>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Jia He <jia.he@hxt-semitech.com>
>>> Hello Jia,
>>>
>>> Apologies for chiming in late.
>> no problem, thanks for your comments  ;-)
>>>
>>> If we are going to rearchitect this, I'd rather we change the loop in
>>> memmap_init_zone() so that we skip to the next valid PFN directly
>>> rather than skipping to the last invalid PFN so that the pfn++ in the
>> hmm... Maybe this macro name makes you confused
>>
>> pfn = skip_to_last_invalid_pfn(pfn);
>>
>> how about skip_to_next_valid_pfn?
>>
>>> for () results in the next value. Can we replace the pfn++ there with
>>> a function calls that defaults to 'return pfn + 1', but does the skip
>>> for architectures that implement it?
>> I am not sure I understand your question here.
>> With this patch, on !arm arches, skip_to_last_invalid_pfn is equal to (pfn),
>> and will be increased
>> when for{} loop continue. We only *skip* to the start pfn of next valid
>> region when
>> CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK and CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_PFN_VALID(arm/arm64 supports
>> both).
>>
> What I am saying is that the loop in memmap_init_zone
>
> for (pfn = start_pfn; pfn < end_pfn; pfn++) { ... }
>
> should be replaced by something like
>
> for (pfn = start_pfn; pfn < end_pfn; pfn = next_valid_pfn(pfn))
>
> where next_valid_pfn() is simply defined as
>
> static ulong next_valid_pfn(ulong pfn)
> {
>    return pfn + 1;
> }
Hi Ard,
Do you think a macro instead of simply fuction is better here?
--
Cheer,
Jia