Re: [PATCHv7 00/14] mm, x86/cc: Implement support for unaccepted memory

Ard Biesheuvel
2022-06-28T17:17:13Z

On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 at 00:38, Kirill A. Shutemov
<kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2022 at 06:33:51PM +0200, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Just as an idea, we can put info into UTS_VERSION which can be read from
> > > > > > the built bzImage. We have info on SMP and preeption there already.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Instead of hacking this into the binary, couldn't we define a protocol
> > > > > that the kernel will call from the EFI stub (before EBS()) to identify
> > > > > itself as an image that understands unaccepted memory, and knows how
> > > > > to deal with it?
> > > > >
> > > > > That way, the firmware can accept all the memory on behalf of the OS
> > > > > at ExitBootServices() time, unless the OS has indicated there is no
> > > > > need to do so.
> > > >
> > > > I agree it would be better. But I think it would require change to EFI
> > > > spec, no?
> > >
> > > Could this somehow be amended on to the UEFI Specification version 2.9
> > > change which added all of the unaccepted memory features?
> > >
> >
> > Why would this need a change in the EFI spec? Not every EFI protocol
> > needs to be in the spec.
>
> My EFI knowledge is shallow. Do we do this in other cases?
>

The E in EFI means 'extensible' and the whole design of a protocol
database using GUIDs as identifiers (which will not collide and
therefore need no a priori coordination when defining them) is
intended to allow extensions to be defined and implemented in a
distributed manner.

Of course, it would be fantastic if we can converge on a protocol that
all flavors of confidential compute can use, across different OSes, so
it is generally good if a protocol is defined in *some* shared
specification. But this doesn't have to be the EFI spec.