Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86 e820: Introduce memmap=resetusablemap for kdump usage

H. Peter Anvin
2013-01-29T02:21:03Z

On 01/28/2013 06:19 PM, Yinghai Lu wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 6:11 PM, H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com> wrote:
>> On 01/28/2013 06:10 PM, Yinghai Lu wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> kexec-tools will change that to E820_KDUMP_RESERVED (or other good name).
>>>
>>> We only need to update kernel to get old max_pfn by
>>> checking E820_KDUMP_RESERVED.
>>>
>>
>> OK, I have asked this before, but I still have not gotten any acceptable
>> answer:
>>
>> Why do we still have max_*_pfn at all? Shouldn't it all be based on
>> memblocks by now?
>
> saved_max_pfn is used for kdump:
> drivers/char/mem.c::read_oldmem will stop there.
> ...
> while (count) {
> pfn = *ppos / PAGE_SIZE;
> if (pfn > saved_max_pfn)
> return read;
> ...

That is a non-answer.

Why do we have *any* instances of max_pfn or max_low_pfn in the kernel
anymore?

-hpa

--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.