Re: [PATCH] [arch-x86] Allow SRAT integrity check to be skipped

H. Peter Anvin
2010-09-07T20:04:38Z

On 09/07/2010 12:38 PM, Peter P Waskiewicz Jr wrote:
>
> It's one SKU of a Nehalem-EX system. The BIOS for that SKU has an issue
> with resolving SRAT hotplug enumeration, and screws up the table. Other
> SKU's of this same platform do not have the issue. Efforts are underway
> to get this BIOS fixed, but in the meantime, there's nothing for users
> to work around the bug (aside from disabling memory hotplug in the
> BIOS). Another platform almost shipped with the same symptoms, but
> caught it and had it fixed before it shipped (didn't catch it early
> because Windows wasn't failing, and most of the testing on that platform
> was done under Windows).
>
> I agree with Andi that adding DMI strings would be overkill and would
> leave clutter once the BIOS is fixed. I look at this patch as a
> stop-gap measure for people to fall back on until a newer BIOS is
> available to correct the NUMA enumeration issues. Without it, we have
> nothing to point users to when they run into this, waiting for a new
> BIOS.
>

No, this is exactly the kind of stuff for which a DMI match is ideal. A
specific system with bounded propagation of the problem. Thus, the DMI
match acts as a whitelist -- "we know this system and it is safe to
activate this hack on it." This is a very good thing.

If this is a production BIOS it should have this information.

-hpa