2022-06-08 03:58:46

by David Hildenbrand

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 5/6] mm: Add mirror flag back on initrd memory

On 07.06.22 11:38, Wupeng Ma wrote:
> From: Ma Wupeng <[email protected]>
>
> Initrd memory will be removed and then added in arm64_memblock_init() and this
> will cause it to lose all of its memblock flags. The lost of MEMBLOCK_MIRROR
> flag will lead to error log printed by find_zone_movable_pfns_for_nodes if
> the lower 4G range has some non-mirrored memory.
>
> In order to solve this problem, the lost MEMBLOCK_MIRROR flag will be
> reinstalled if the origin memblock has this flag.
>
> Signed-off-by: Ma Wupeng <[email protected]>
> ---
> arch/arm64/mm/init.c | 9 +++++++++
> include/linux/memblock.h | 1 +
> mm/memblock.c | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
> 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> index 339ee84e5a61..11641f924d08 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> @@ -350,9 +350,18 @@ void __init arm64_memblock_init(void)
> "initrd not fully accessible via the linear mapping -- please check your bootloader ...\n")) {
> phys_initrd_size = 0;
> } else {
> + int flags, ret;
> +
> + ret = memblock_get_flags(base, &flags);
> + if (ret)
> + flags = 0;
> +
> memblock_remove(base, size); /* clear MEMBLOCK_ flags */
> memblock_add(base, size);
> memblock_reserve(base, size);

Can you explain why we're removing+re-adding here exactly? Is it just to
clear flags as the comment indicates?


If it's really just about clearing flags, I wonder if we rather want to
have an interface that does exactly that, and hides the way this is
actually implemented (obtain flags, remove, re-add ...), internally.

But most probably there is more magic in the code and clearing flags
isn't all it ends up doing.

--
Thanks,

David / dhildenb


2022-06-08 08:29:48

by Ard Biesheuvel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 5/6] mm: Add mirror flag back on initrd memory

On Tue, 7 Jun 2022 at 14:22, David Hildenbrand <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 07.06.22 11:38, Wupeng Ma wrote:
> > From: Ma Wupeng <[email protected]>
> >
> > Initrd memory will be removed and then added in arm64_memblock_init() and this
> > will cause it to lose all of its memblock flags. The lost of MEMBLOCK_MIRROR
> > flag will lead to error log printed by find_zone_movable_pfns_for_nodes if
> > the lower 4G range has some non-mirrored memory.
> >
> > In order to solve this problem, the lost MEMBLOCK_MIRROR flag will be
> > reinstalled if the origin memblock has this flag.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Ma Wupeng <[email protected]>
> > ---
> > arch/arm64/mm/init.c | 9 +++++++++
> > include/linux/memblock.h | 1 +
> > mm/memblock.c | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
> > 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> > index 339ee84e5a61..11641f924d08 100644
> > --- a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> > +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
> > @@ -350,9 +350,18 @@ void __init arm64_memblock_init(void)
> > "initrd not fully accessible via the linear mapping -- please check your bootloader ...\n")) {
> > phys_initrd_size = 0;
> > } else {
> > + int flags, ret;
> > +
> > + ret = memblock_get_flags(base, &flags);
> > + if (ret)
> > + flags = 0;
> > +
> > memblock_remove(base, size); /* clear MEMBLOCK_ flags */
> > memblock_add(base, size);
> > memblock_reserve(base, size);
>
> Can you explain why we're removing+re-adding here exactly? Is it just to
> clear flags as the comment indicates?
>

This should only happen if the placement of the initrd conflicts with
a mem= command line parameter or it is not covered by memblock for
some other reason.

IOW, this should never happen, and if re-memblock_add'ing this memory
unconditionally is causing problems, we should fix that instead of
working around it.

> If it's really just about clearing flags, I wonder if we rather want to
> have an interface that does exactly that, and hides the way this is
> actually implemented (obtain flags, remove, re-add ...), internally.
>
> But most probably there is more magic in the code and clearing flags
> isn't all it ends up doing.
>

I don't remember exactly why we needed to clear the flags, but I think
it had to do with some corner case we hit when the initrd was
partially covered.