Re: [PATCH] ia64: SN specific version of dma_get_required_mask()

[John Keller <jpk@sgi.com>]

> 
> * John Keller [2008-11-17 10:24]:
> >
> > Create a platform specific version of dma_get_required_mask()
> > for ia64 SN Altix. All SN Altix platforms support 64 bit DMA
> > addressing regardless of the size of system memory.
> > Create a ia64 machvec for dma_get_required_mask, with the
> > SN version unconditionally returning DMA_64BIT_MASK.
> 
> Maybe we should then switch the ia64_platform_is("sn2")
> in check_crashkernel_memory() to dma_get_required_mask() ==
> DMA_64BIT_MASK because that's basically what the check is about.
> 
> BTW: What about UV?
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Bernhard
> -- 
> Bernhard Walle, SUSE Linux Products GmbH, Architecture Development
> 


This patch addresses a problem on SN Altix systems with < 4GB, where
device drivers using the dma_get_required_mask() API would be told
to use 32 bit DMA, when 64 bit is more efficient.

How exactly the use of dma_get_required_mask() relates to the crash
kernel code you refer to is unclear to me.

If, for all platforms, the crash kernel code could use the mask returned
from dma_get_required_mask() to do its check, then switching the code
might be OK. But, if that's not possible for some platforms, then I'd
wonder if dma_get_required_mask() is being used in the wrong context in
this case.

For UV systems, the default/generic dma_get_required_mask() will be used,
returning a value based on the size of system memory.

John