[PATCH] x86: intel_epb: Add earlyparam option to keep bias at performance

From: Jack Allister
Date: Tue Dec 05 2023 - 08:14:15 EST


There are certain scenarios where it may be intentional that the EPB was
set at to 0/ENERGY_PERF_BIAS_PERFORMANCE on kernel boot. For example, in
data centers a kexec/live-update of the kernel may be performed regularly.

Usually this live-update is time critical and defaulting of the bias back
to ENERGY_PERF_BIAS_NORMAL may actually be detrimental to the overall
update time if processors' time to ramp up/boost are affected.

This patch introduces a kernel command line "intel_epb_keep_performance"
which will leave the EPB at performance if during the restoration code path
it is detected as such.

Signed-off-by: Jack Allister <jalliste@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Paul Durrant <pdurrant@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jue Wang <juew@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kernel/cpu/intel_epb.c | 13 +++++++++++--
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/intel_epb.c b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/intel_epb.c
index e4c3ba91321c..cbe0e224b8d9 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/intel_epb.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/intel_epb.c
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@
* the OS will do that anyway. That sometimes is problematic, as it may cause
* the system battery to drain too fast, for example, so it is better to adjust
* it on CPU bring-up and if the initial EPB value for a given CPU is 0, the
- * kernel changes it to 6 ('normal').
+ * kernel changes it to 6 ('normal'). This however is overridable via
+ * intel_epb_no_override if required.
*/

static DEFINE_PER_CPU(u8, saved_epb);
@@ -75,6 +76,8 @@ static u8 energ_perf_values[] = {
[EPB_INDEX_POWERSAVE] = ENERGY_PERF_BIAS_POWERSAVE,
};

+static bool intel_epb_no_override __read_mostly;
+
static int intel_epb_save(void)
{
u64 epb;
@@ -106,7 +109,7 @@ static void intel_epb_restore(void)
* ('normal').
*/
val = epb & EPB_MASK;
- if (val == ENERGY_PERF_BIAS_PERFORMANCE) {
+ if (!intel_epb_no_override && val == ENERGY_PERF_BIAS_PERFORMANCE) {
val = energ_perf_values[EPB_INDEX_NORMAL];
pr_warn_once("ENERGY_PERF_BIAS: Set to 'normal', was 'performance'\n");
}
@@ -213,6 +216,12 @@ static const struct x86_cpu_id intel_epb_normal[] = {
{}
};

+static __init int intel_epb_no_override_setup(char *str)
+{
+ return kstrtobool(str, &intel_epb_no_override);
+}
+early_param("intel_epb_no_override", intel_epb_no_override_setup);
+
static __init int intel_epb_init(void)
{
const struct x86_cpu_id *id = x86_match_cpu(intel_epb_normal);
--
2.40.1