Re: [Patch v2] Make PCI extended config space (MMCONFIG) a driveropt-in

From: Tony Camuso
Date: Tue Jan 29 2008 - 10:17:01 EST


Arjan van de Ven wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:15:02 -0500
Tony Camuso <tcamuso@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Greg,

The problem with Arjan's patch, if I understand it correctly, is that
it requires drivers to make a call to access extended PCI config
space.

And, IIRC, Arjan's patch encumbers drivers for all arch's, even those
that have no MMCONFIG problems.

The patches proposed by Loic, Ivan, Matthew, and myself, all address
the problem in an x86-specific manner that is transparent to the
drivers.

this is not quite correct; the patches from Loic, Ivan, Matthew and you are for a different
problem statement.

Your patch problem statement is "need to fix mmconfig", my patch problem statement is "need
to not make users who don't need it suffer". These are orthogonal problems.



Yes, but your patch also makes users who need extended PCI config space suffer.

Right now, that isn't a lot of people in x86 land, but your patch encumbers drivers
for non-x86 archs with an additional call to access space that they've never had
a problem with.

As more PCI express drivers start to take advantage of AER and other advanced
express capabilities, the extra call to address a condition specific to legacy
x86 hardware is, IMNSHO, a kludge.

The patches submitted by the others fix the problems with MMCONFIG without
encumbering the drivers to be aware of any difference between legacy config
space and extended config space.

I have tested these patches on a number of systems exhibiting various MMCONFIG-
related pathologies, and they work.




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