Re: bigphysarea support in 2.2.19 and 2.4.0 kernels

Alan Cox
2000-12-22T09:27:34Z

> (Alan: bootmem allocation just won't do. I need that memory
> in modules which get potentially loaded/unloaded, hence a
> wrapper interface for allowing access to a bootmem allocated
> piece of memory)

Yes, I pointed him at you for 2.4test because you had the code sitting on
top of bootmem which is the right way to do it.

> Or do you want it rolled in kmalloc? So GFP_DMA with size>128K
> would take memory from this? That would mean a much more intrusive
> patch in very sensitive and rapidly changing parts of the kernel
> (2.2->2.4 speaking)...

bigmem is 'last resort' stuff. I'd much rather it is as now a seperate
allocator so you actually have to sit and think and decide to give up on
kmalloc/vmalloc/better algorithms and only use it when the hardware sucks