Impact: bug fix + BIOS workaround
BIOS is expected to clear the SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramModEn] on AMD CPUs
after fixed MTRRs are configured.
Some BIOSes do not clear SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramModEn] on BP (and on APs).
This can lead to obfuscation in Linux when this bit is not cleared on
BP but cleared on APs. A consequence of this is that the saved
fixed-MTRR state (from BP) differs from the fixed-MTRRs of APs --
because RdDram/WrDram bits are read as zero when
SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramModEn] is cleared -- and Linux tries to sync
fixed-MTRR state from BP to AP. This implies that Linux sets
SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramEn] and activates those bits.
More important is that (some) systems change these bits in SMM when
ACPI is enabled. Hence it is racy if Linux modifies RdMem/WrMem bits,
too.
(1) The patch modifies an old fix from Bernhard Kaindl to get
suspend/resume working on some Acer Laptops. Bernhard's patch
tried to sync RdMem/WrMem bits of fixed MTRR registers and that
helped on those old Laptops. (Don't ask me why -- can't test it
myself). But this old problem was not the motivation for the
patch. (See http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/4/3/110)
(2) The more important effect is to fix issues on some more current systems.
On those systems Linux panics or just freezes, see
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11541
(and also duplicates of this bug:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11737http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11714)
The affected systems boot only using acpi=ht, acpi=off or
when the kernel is built with CONFIG_MTRR=n.
The acpi options prevent full enablement of ACPI. Obviously when
ACPI is enabled the BIOS/SMM modfies RdMem/WrMem bits. When
CONFIG_MTRR=y Linux also accesses and modifies those bits when it
needs to sync fixed-MTRRs across cores (Bernhard's fix, see (1)).
How do you synchronize that? You can't. As a consequence Linux
shouldn't touch those bits at all (Rationale are AMD's BKDGs which
recommend to clear the bit that makes RdMem/WrMem accessible).
This is the purpose of this patch. And (so far) this suffices to
fix (1) and (2).
I suggest not to touch RdDram/WrDram bits of fixed-MTRRs and
SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramEn] and to clear SYSCFG[MtrrFixDramModEn] as
suggested by AMD K8, and AMD family 10h/11h BKDGs.
BIOS is expected to do this anyway. This should avoid that
Linux and SMM tread on each other's toes ...
Signed-off-by: Andreas Herrmann <andreas.herrmann3@amd.com>
Cc: trenn@suse.de
Cc: Yinghai Lu <yinghai@kernel.org>
LKML-Reference: <20090312163937.GH20716@alberich.amd.com>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
3ff42da504