Re: Where to call L2 cache enabling code from?

[Steve Snyder <swsnyder@insightbb.com>]

On Friday 14 April 2006 11:46 am, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Gwe, 2006-04-14 at 11:05 -0400, Steve Snyder wrote:
> > I have a machine in which the BIOS does not enable the Pentium3's L2
> > cache at boot time.  At what point in the kernel init process
> > can/should I call the code to enable the cache?
>
> What part of the cache setup is not done correctly ? The mtrr registers
> or other things ?

It's not that the kernel is failing in any respect.  The BIOS simply does 
not enable the on-CPU L2 cache at power-on.  (The machine originally 
shipped with a Pentium2, and doesn't know how to enable the L2 cache on 
the Pentium3 that is now running in it.)

I've got a small device driver that enables the L2 cache.  It works fine 
when build as a module and loaded after booting has completed.  My goal 
is to move the code into the kernel so that it is run early in the kernel 
init process.  I expect that having the L2 cache go from "0KB" to 256KB 
will improve boot time greatly, as well as informing the kernel from the 
get-go of the true capabilities of this processor.

Getting the code into the kernel image is a no-brainer.  But once it is 
built into the kernel, at what point should I call it?

Thanks for the response.