RE: [PATCH v2 1/6] x86/bugs: Add asm helpers for executing VERW

From: Luck, Tony
Date: Tue Oct 24 2023 - 14:49:17 EST


> the only overhead to modules other than load time (including the runtime linking) is that modules can't realistically be mapped using large page entries.

If there were some significant win for using large pages, couldn't the
kernel pre-allocate some 2MB pages in the [-2GiB,0) range? Boot parameter
for how many (perhaps two for separate code/data pages). First few loaded
modules get to use that space until it is all gone.

It would all be quite messy if those modules were later unloaded/reloaded
... so there would have to be some compelling benchmarks to justify
the complexity.

That's probably why Peter said "can't realistically".

-Tony