Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753875AbZITHnc (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:43:32 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753146AbZITHnc (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:43:32 -0400 Received: from mx3.mail.elte.hu ([157.181.1.138]:59195 "EHLO mx3.mail.elte.hu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751619AbZITHnb (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:43:31 -0400 Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:42:47 +0200 From: Ingo Molnar To: Alok Kataria Cc: Thomas Gleixner , "H. Peter Anvin" , the arch/x86 maintainers , LKML , Jeremy Fitzhardinge , Chris Wright , Rusty Russell , "virtualization@lists.osdl.org" , Greg KH , Linus Torvalds , Andrew Morton Subject: Re: Paravirtualization on VMware's Platform [VMI]. Message-ID: <20090920074247.GA5733@elte.hu> References: <1253233028.19731.63.camel@ank32.eng.vmware.com> <20090919224430.GB9567@kroah.com> <1253419185.3253.21.camel@ank32.eng.vmware.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1253419185.3253.21.camel@ank32.eng.vmware.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) X-ELTE-SpamScore: -1.5 X-ELTE-SpamLevel: X-ELTE-SpamCheck: no X-ELTE-SpamVersion: ELTE 2.0 X-ELTE-SpamCheck-Details: score=-1.5 required=5.9 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=no SpamAssassin version=3.2.5 -1.5 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% [score: 0.0000] Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1889 Lines: 46 * Alok Kataria wrote: > Here is the patch which actually removes the vmi code. > > Signed-off-by: Alok N Kataria > --- > > Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt | 2 > arch/x86/Kconfig | 10 > arch/x86/include/asm/vmi.h | 269 ---------- > arch/x86/include/asm/vmi_time.h | 98 ---- > arch/x86/kernel/Makefile | 1 > arch/x86/kernel/setup.c | 7 > arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c | 9 > arch/x86/kernel/vmi_32.c | 913 ----------------------------------- > arch/x86/kernel/vmiclock_32.c | 321 ------------ > 9 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1629 deletions(-) > delete mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/vmi.h > delete mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/vmi_time.h > delete mode 100644 arch/x86/kernel/vmi_32.c > delete mode 100644 arch/x86/kernel/vmiclock_32.c The thing is, the overwhelming majority of vmware users dont benefit from hardware features like nested page tables yet. So this needs to be done _way_ more carefully, with a proper sunset period of a couple of kernel cycles. This is as if Intel had sent a patch to desupport say Core2 optimizations, now that Nehalem is out. 'Virtual hardware' is no different in this respect: until users benefit from something we want to keep it, even if the vendor would like to sell new hardware and would like the new hardware to have an edge over the installed base. If we were able to rip out all (or most) of paravirt from arch/x86 it would be tempting for other technical reasons - but the patch above is well localized. Ingo -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/