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Bug#834505: arm64 boot failure with large physical memory range



On Sun, 2016-08-21 at 11:42 +0100, Leif Lindholm wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 21, 2016 at 01:11:15AM +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > I think this would be opening up a real can of worms. Not all sizes
> > > > > are supported by the architecture, and only certain VA_BITS/pagesize
> > > > > combinations work in the kernel.
> > > > > 
> > > > > We could switch to 42-bit VA, but that would require switching to 64K
> > > > > pagesize, which would be an even huger can.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not suggesting using any unusual page table configuration. Just
> > > > reducing the ASLR range that is currently implied by a 48-bit VA.
> > > 
> > > But would that help anything?
> > > Even if you don't allocate to the top bits, if they're used for
> > > tagging, you'll still segfault.
> > 
> > I seem to remember that AArch64 has the ill-advised rule that VA bits
> > outside the range of the current page table format are ignored, so
> > presumably you're concerned that the code relies on this.  But since
> > other 64-bit architectures (at least x86, PowerPC and SPARC) behave
> > otherwise, I would expect semi-portable code to mask out the tag bits.
> 
> You're not wrong, but unfortunately the ability to write semi-portable
> code left the planet over a decade ago. For clarification - the
> problem is not with regards to code written specifically for arm64 and
> not verified with different MMU-configurations, but with code written
> for x86 and never tested on anything else. See my post to cross-distro
> last week (and the subsequent thread):
> https://lists.linaro.org/pipermail/cross-distro/2016-August/000838.html

I already read that.  I don't see the contradiction.

> So simply adjusting the mmap range on Debian would result in us using
> less verified code paths without it helping with the problem at hand.

What new code path would be used?

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

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