Re: [PATCH 2/4 v2] cxl/core: Add helpers to detect Low memory Holes on x86

[Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>]

On Tue, Apr 01, 2025 at 01:32:33PM -0700, Dan Williams wrote:
> Gregory Price wrote:
> > Is there a reason not to handle more than just LMH's in this set?
> 
> This discussion was referenced recently on an IM and I wanted to share
> my response to it:
> 
> The rules for when to apply this memory hole quirk are explicit and
> suitable to add to the CXL specification. I want the same standard for
> any other quirk and ideally some proof-of-work to get that quirk
> recognized by the specification. Otherwise, I worry that generalizing
> for all the possible ways that platform BIOS tries to be clever means we
> end up with something that has no rules.
>
> The spec is there to allow software to delineate valid configurations vs
> mistakes, and this slow drip of "Linux does not understand this platform
> configuration" is a spec gap.

Note: I've since come around to understand the whole ecosystem a bit
      better since i wrote this response. I don't know that it's needed.


Some of the explanation of this patch series is a bit confusing. It
justifies itself by saying CFMWS don't intersect memory holes and that
endpoint decoders have to be 256MB aligned.

/*
 * Match CXL Root and Endpoint Decoders by comparing SPA and HPA ranges.
 *
 * On x86, CFMWS ranges never intersect memory holes while endpoint decoders
 * HPA range sizes are always guaranteed aligned to NIW * 256MB; therefore,
 * the given endpoint decoder HPA range size is always expected aligned and
 * also larger than that of the matching root decoder. If there are LMH's,
 * the root decoder range end is always less than SZ_4G.
 */

But per the spec, CFMWS is also aligned to be aligned to 256MB.

Shouldn't the platform work around memory holes to generate multiple
CFMWS for the entire capacity, and then use multiple endpoint decoders
(1 per CFMWS) to map the capacity accordingly?

(Also, I still don't understand the oracle value of <4GB address range.
 It seems like if this is some quirk of SPA vs HPA alignment, then it
 can hold for *all* ocurrances, not just stuff below 4GB)

~Gregory