Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCHv4 18/33] x86/xen: convert __xen_pgd_walk() and xen_cleanmfnmap() to support p4d

[Boris Ostrovsky]

On 03/07/2017 01:26 PM, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> On 07/03/17 18:18, Boris Ostrovsky wrote:
>>>> Don't we need to pass vaddr down to all routines so that they select
>>>> appropriate tables? You seem to always be choosing the first one.
>>> IIUC, we clear whole page table subtree covered by one pgd entry.
>>> So, no, there's no need to pass vaddr down. Just pointer to page table
>>> entry is enough.
>>>
>>> But I know virtually nothing about Xen. Please re-check my reasoning.
>> Yes, we effectively remove the whole page table for vaddr so I guess
>> it's OK.
>>
>>> I would also appreciate help with getting x86 Xen code work with 5-level
>>> paging enabled. For now I make CONFIG_XEN dependent on !CONFIG_X86_5LEVEL.
>> Hmmm... that's a problem since this requires changes in the hypervisor
>> and even if/when these changes are made older version of hypervisor
>> still will not be able to run those guests.
>>
>> This affects only PV guests and there is a series under review that
>> provides clean code separation with CONFIG_XEN_PV but because, for
>> example, dom0 (Xen control domain) is PV this will significantly limit
>> availability of dom0-capable kernels (because I assume distros will want
>> to have CONFIG_X86_5LEVEL).
> Wasn't the plan to be able to automatically detect 4 vs 5 level support,
> and cope either way, so distros didn't have to ship two different builds
> of Linux?
>
> If so, all we need to do git things to compile sensibly, and have the PV
> entry code in Linux configure the rest of the kernel appropriately.

I am not aware of any plans but this would obviously be the preferred route.

-boris