From: Khalid Ali <khaliidcaliy@gmail.com>
To: bp@alien8.de
Cc: andrew.cooper3@citrix.com, ardb@kernel.org, brgerst@gmail.com,
dave.hansen@linux.intel.com, hpa@zytor.com,
khaliidcaliy@gmail.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
mingo@redhat.com, tglx@linutronix.de, ubizjak@gmail.com,
x86@kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] x86/boot: Avoid writing to cr4 twice in startup_64()
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:07:20 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250716090755.668-1-khaliidcaliy@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20250716014504.GAaHcEIIUgNOdu_n2s@fat_crate.local>
> > > diff
> > > <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250715181709.1040-1-khaliidcaliy@gmail.com/#iZ31arch:x86:kernel:head_64.S>
> > > --git a/arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S b/arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S index
> > > 4390a28f7dad..dfb5390e5c9a 100644 --- a/arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S +++
> > > b/arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S @@ -222,12 +222,9 @@
> > > SYM_INNER_LABEL(common_startup_64, SYM_L_LOCAL)
> > > /* Even if ignored in long mode, set PSE uniformly on all logical CPUs. */
> > > btsl $X86_CR4_PSE_BIT, %ecx
> > > - movq %rcx, %cr4 - - /* - * Set CR4.PGE to re-enable global
> > > translations. - */ + /* Set CR4.PGE to re-enable global translations. */ btsl $X86_CR4_PGE_BIT, %ecx
> > > + movq %rcx, %cr4
> >
> > The comments are at best misleading, but you've broken the TLB flush
> > being performed which depends on the double write.
> >
> > This logic is intentionally performing a write with CR4.PGE=0 followed
> > by one with CR4.PGE=1 to flush all global mappings.
> Thanks both of you for the catch - I didn't realize that fact. Zapped now.
>
> So yeah, maybe there should be a comment explaining this subtlety.
>
> Thx.
I think the comment is misplaced. It is better if we move starting from "from the SDM"
to below the endif. The second move the comment above it isn't useful also everyone knows
what PGE bit does, so it is better if we replace with the above misplaced comment.
Thanks
Khalid Ali
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-07-16 9:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-07-15 18:16 Khalid Ali
2025-07-15 18:45 ` Nikolay Borisov
2025-07-15 19:05 ` [tip: x86/cleanups] x86/boot: Avoid redundant %cr4 write " tip-bot2 for Khalid Ali
2025-07-15 20:30 ` [PATCH v3] x86/boot: Avoid writing to cr4 twice " H. Peter Anvin
2025-07-15 20:31 ` H. Peter Anvin
2025-07-15 21:21 ` Andrew Cooper
2025-07-16 1:45 ` Borislav Petkov
2025-07-16 9:07 ` Khalid Ali [this message]
2025-07-16 13:27 ` Borislav Petkov
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20250716090755.668-1-khaliidcaliy@gmail.com \
--to=khaliidcaliy@gmail.com \
--cc=andrew.cooper3@citrix.com \
--cc=ardb@kernel.org \
--cc=bp@alien8.de \
--cc=brgerst@gmail.com \
--cc=dave.hansen@linux.intel.com \
--cc=hpa@zytor.com \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=mingo@redhat.com \
--cc=tglx@linutronix.de \
--cc=ubizjak@gmail.com \
--cc=x86@kernel.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox
all inboxes | Powered by JetHome®