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* RE: PAE support revisited
@ 2005-03-22  8:00 Ian Pratt
  2005-03-22  9:49 ` Jacob Gorm Hansen
                   ` (3 more replies)
  0 siblings, 4 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Ian Pratt @ 2005-03-22  8:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Karen White, Nuutti Kotivuori; +Cc: xen-devel, ian.pratt


> There are at least two separate efforts looking at enabling PAE in
> Xen that I know of.  A couple of us are looking at it and we have
> started correspondance with Gerd Knorr, who is also looking at it.
> 
> We have no firm idea on when a working implementation will
> be available, but are hoping sooner rather than later.

There are a few things that need to be sorted to get PAE to work:

 * cleanup use of 'unsigned long' that exists in some handling of PTEs.
We've agreed a strategy of doing this with Gerd
 
 * change hypercall structs (possibly just switch to using x86_64 mem op
hypercall layout)

 * Modify Linux arch xen to using a variable sized hypervisor hole in
the top of the VA space. Possibly best done by moving fixaddr to the
bottom end of memory.

 * adjust hypervisor memory layout to deal with larger variable sized
frame table.

 * add 3-level type checking to Xen (this should be easy as it already
supports 2 and 4 level)

 * add 3-level support to Linux arch Xen (this should be easy as the
there are very few modifications to the mm system these days) 

Once its working, there are a few other features that would be nice:

 * shadow mode support to run 2 level guests on a 3 level hypervisor

 * Linux kernel that boot time switches between 2 and 3 level. I'm sure
the distros would love this on native x86. I believe it can be done with
low performance cost by using function dispatch patching to switch
between 2 and 3 level versions of Linux's performance critical functions
(e.g. the _range functions and fork), and then just using 'if'
statements in the pte macros used by the less critical functions.  


It would be great if other people could start tackling some of the items
on the list.

Thanks,
Ian



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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* RE: PAE support revisited - questions
@ 2005-03-30  7:30 Ian Pratt
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Ian Pratt @ 2005-03-30  7:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Karen White, Gerd Knorr; +Cc: keir.fraser, xen-devel, Nuutti Kotivuori

> I submitted a CONFIG_PAE patch, but Keir says PAE support 
> will be determined at boot time, not compile time.
> 
> Have you, Keir, and Ian gotten together to agree on common 
> high-level strategy.

As Keir says, the ultimate goal is to use simple double compilation
tricks such that we can have one xen image that works both PAE and
non-PAE.
This is independent of actually getting PAE working, where I expect at
least for a while it will be a compilation option. 

The point Keir was making was that it was pointless adding a CONFIG_PAE
compile option until there was at least some actual PAE code.

Thanks,
Ian

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2005-03-30 10:20 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 9+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2005-03-22  8:00 PAE support revisited Ian Pratt
2005-03-22  9:49 ` Jacob Gorm Hansen
2005-03-22 14:51 ` Ronald G. Minnich
2005-03-22 18:22 ` [patch] " Gerd Knorr
2005-03-22 23:21 ` Karen White
2005-03-23 23:23   ` PAE: config and file layout Karen White
     [not found]   ` <87oed2bpv5.fsf@bytesex.org>
2005-03-30  0:28     ` PAE support revisited - questions Karen White
2005-03-30 10:20       ` Gerd Knorr
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2005-03-30  7:30 Ian Pratt

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