Re: [PATCH V2 1/2] arm64/mm: Fix pfn_valid() for ZONE_DEVICE based memory
From: David Hildenbrand <hidden>
Date: 2021-02-02 12:41:22
Also in:
linux-arm-kernel, lkml
On 02.02.21 13:35, Will Deacon wrote:
On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 12:32:15PM +0000, Will Deacon wrote:quoted
On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 09:41:53AM +0530, Anshuman Khandual wrote:quoted
pfn_valid() validates a pfn but basically it checks for a valid struct page backing for that pfn. It should always return positive for memory ranges backed with struct page mapping. But currently pfn_valid() fails for all ZONE_DEVICE based memory types even though they have struct page mapping. pfn_valid() asserts that there is a memblock entry for a given pfn without MEMBLOCK_NOMAP flag being set. The problem with ZONE_DEVICE based memory is that they do not have memblock entries. Hence memblock_is_map_memory() will invariably fail via memblock_search() for a ZONE_DEVICE based address. This eventually fails pfn_valid() which is wrong. memblock_is_map_memory() needs to be skipped for such memory ranges. As ZONE_DEVICE memory gets hotplugged into the system via memremap_pages() called from a driver, their respective memory sections will not have SECTION_IS_EARLY set. Normal hotplug memory will never have MEMBLOCK_NOMAP set in their memblock regions. Because the flag MEMBLOCK_NOMAP was specifically designed and set for firmware reserved memory regions. memblock_is_map_memory() can just be skipped as its always going to be positive and that will be an optimization for the normal hotplug memory. Like ZONE_DEVICE based memory, all normal hotplugged memory too will not have SECTION_IS_EARLY set for their sections Skipping memblock_is_map_memory() for all non early memory sections would fix pfn_valid() problem for ZONE_DEVICE based memory and also improve its performance for normal hotplug memory as well.Hmm. Although I follow your logic, this does seem to rely on an awful lot of assumptions to continue to hold true as the kernel evolves. In particular, how do we ensure that early sections are always fully backed withSorry, typo here: ^^^ should be *non-early* sections.
It might be a good idea to have a look at generic include/linux/mmzone.h:pfn_valid() As I expressed already, long term we should really get rid of the arm64 variant and rather special-case the generic one. Then we won't go out of sync - just as it happened with ZONE_DEVICE handling here. -- Thanks, David / dhildenb