[PATCH] x86: don't rely on VMWare emulating PAT MSR correctly

[Juergen Gross]

VMWare seems not to emulate the PAT MSR correctly: reaeding
MSR_IA32_CR_PAT returns 0 even after writing another value to it.

Detect this bug and don't use the read value if it is 0.

Commit bd809af16e3ab1f8d55b3e2928c47c67e2a865d2 ("x86: Enable PAT to
use cache mode translation tables") triggers this VMWare bug when the
kernel is booted as a VMWare guest.

Reported-by: Jongman Heo <jongman.heo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Juergen Gross <jgross@xxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Jongman Heo <jongman.heo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 arch/x86/mm/pat.c | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pat.c b/arch/x86/mm/pat.c
index edf299c..7ac6869 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/pat.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/pat.c
@@ -234,8 +234,13 @@ void pat_init(void)
 	      PAT(4, WB) | PAT(5, WC) | PAT(6, UC_MINUS) | PAT(7, UC);
 
 	/* Boot CPU check */
-	if (!boot_pat_state)
+	if (!boot_pat_state) {
 		rdmsrl(MSR_IA32_CR_PAT, boot_pat_state);
+		if (!boot_pat_state) {
+			pat_disable("PAT read returns always zero, disabled.");
+			return;
+		}
+	}
 
 	wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_CR_PAT, pat);
 
-- 
2.1.2


--------------060708040205050005030202--
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/