public inbox for linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org 
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "Gerhard Pircher" <gerhard_pircher@gmx•net>
To: Milton Miller <miltonm@bga•com>
Cc: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs•org
Subject: Re: How to dynamically disable/enable CPU features?
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:05:31 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20080222190531.103050@gmx.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <ebff4ecb45908616728fb5c8ede8b0bf@bga.com>

Hi,

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:24:38 -0600
> Von: Milton Miller <miltonm@bga•com>
> An: Gerhard Pircher <gerhard_pircher@gmx•net>
> CC: ppcdev <linuxppc-dev@ozlabs•org>
> Betreff: Re: How to dynamically disable/enable CPU features?

> We handle cpu features in a couple of ways:
> (1) we replace assembly instructions with nop early in the kernel boot
I'm pretty sure that is the problem.

> (2) we test the feature flags in c code
> 
> In (2), we form two expressions for features that are
> (a) always set
> (b) never set
> so that the compiler can eliminate the test based on the config.
> 
> To change a flag, you must make sure its in POSSIBLE but not ALWAYS, 
> and also set it before it is used, either to nop out instructions (see 
> early_init in setup-32.c for 32 bit), or tested by c code (in this 
> case, maybe the initial_mmu setup is testing NEED_COHERENT, which is 
> between early_init and probe). The code path is a bit different for 64
> bit.
The flag is in POSSIBLE. I now use this code in the platform probe
function to nop out the code affected by the flag:

cur_cpu_spec->cpu_features &= ~CPU_FTR_NEED_COHERENT;
/* Patch out unwanted feature. */
do_feature_fixups(cur_cpu_spec->cpu_features,
		  PTRRELOC(&__start___ftr_fixup),
		  PTRRELOC(&__stop___ftr_fixup));

It seems to work so far, but I would like to know if this is the right
way to do it, or if calling do_feature_fixups() more than once can have
any side effects.

regards,

Gerhard
-- 
Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört?
Der kann`s mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger

  reply	other threads:[~2008-02-22 19:05 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2008-02-21 20:07 How to dynamically disable/enable CPU features? Gerhard Pircher
2008-02-22 17:24 ` Milton Miller
2008-02-22 19:05   ` Gerhard Pircher [this message]
2008-02-22 22:32     ` Benjamin Herrenschmidt
2008-02-24 14:47       ` Gerhard Pircher
2008-02-22 22:26 ` Benjamin Herrenschmidt

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20080222190531.103050@gmx.net \
    --to=gerhard_pircher@gmx$(echo .)net \
    --cc=linuxppc-dev@ozlabs$(echo .)org \
    --cc=miltonm@bga$(echo .)com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox