Re: [PATCH 05/11] vmlinux.lds.h: Preserve DTB sections from being discarded after init

Andrea della Porta
2024-09-03T12:30:20Z

Hi Stephen,

On 12:46 Fri 30 Aug , Stephen Boyd wrote:
> Quoting Andrea della Porta (2024-08-20 07:36:07)
> > The special section .dtb.init.rodata contains dtb and dtbo compiled
> > as objects inside the kernel and ends up in .init.data sectiion that
> > will be discarded early after the init phase. This is a problem for
> > builtin drivers that apply dtb overlay at runtime since this happens
> > later (e.g. during bus enumeration) and also for modules that should
> > be able to do it dynamically during runtime.
> > Move the dtb section to .data.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Andrea della Porta <andrea.porta@suse.com>
> > ---
> > include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 2 +-
> > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > index ad6afc5c4918..3ae9097774b0 100644
> > --- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > +++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > @@ -365,6 +365,7 @@
> > TRACE_PRINTKS() \
> > BPF_RAW_TP() \
> > TRACEPOINT_STR() \
> > + KERNEL_DTB() \
>
> The KERNEL_DTB() macro shows the section name is dtb.init.rodata. Can
> you remove the ".init." part if this isn't initdata anymore? And
> shouldn't it be in the RO_DATA() macro?

Ack.

>
> It would be nice to keep the initdata properties when this isn't used
> after init as well. Perhaps we need another macro and/or filename to
> indicate that the DTB{O} can be thrown away after init/module init.

We can certainly add some more filename extension that would place the
relevant data in a droppable section.
Throwing away the dtb/o after init is like the actual KERNEL_DTB macro that
is adding teh data to section .init.data, but this would mean t would be
useful only at very early init stage, just like for CONFIG_OF_UNITTEST.
Throwing after module init could be more difficult though, I think,
for example we're not sure when to discard the section in case of deferred
modules probe.

Many thanks,
Andrea