Re: missing flush_dcache_page call in 2.4 kernel

[Peter Horton <pdh@colonel-panic.org>]

On Fri, Mar 26, 2004 at 12:22:58PM +0900, Atsushi Nemoto wrote:
>
> phorton> Looks like it.
> 
> phorton> The fix we're using on Cobalt's at the moment is below
> phorton> (required for 2.4.x and 2.6.x).
> 
> phorton> Fixing it this way fixes the problem with both page cache
> phorton> pages and swap pages.
> 
> phorton> For more details see the threads "Kernel 2.4.23 on Cobalt
> phorton> Qube2 - area of problem" and "Instability / caching problems
> phorton> on Qube 2 - solved ?"  from December last year.
> 
> Thanks, I agree (maybe I should read ML messages more carefully ...)
> 
> This patch fixes my problem also, thanks, but ... I do not think
> r4k_flush_icache_page is a best place to fix since my test program is
> not related I-cache at all.
> 

Agreed. The fix went here because this is arch specific code and it's
called in exactly the two places where there is a problem.

> I'm quite sure that it's a kernel bug and may cause problems if any
> PIO block device (PIO ide, ide-cs, mtdblock, etc.) are used on CPUs
> which have d-cache aliases (not only MIPS).  We need a correct fix ...
> 

True. A proper fix would flush the relevant page after PIO transfers
into the page cache / swap pages. Unfortunately this would require a
hook in the generic kernel.

P.