On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 03:57:45PM -0400, Chuck Zmudzinski wrote:
On 7/12/22 3:26 PM, Greg KH wrote:
On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 03:16:01PM -0400, Chuck Zmudzinski wrote:
On 7/12/22 2:36 PM, Greg KH wrote:
On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 02:20:37PM -0400, Chuck Zmudzinski wrote:
The commit 99c13b8c8896d7bcb92753bf ("x86/mm/pat: Don't report PAT on CPUs that don't support it") incorrectly failed to account for the case in init_cache_modes() when CPUs do support PAT and falsely reported PAT to be disabled when in fact PAT is enabled. In some environments, notably in Xen PV domains, MTRR is disabled but PAT is still enabled, and that is the case that the aforementioned commit failed to account for.
As an unfortunate consequnce, the pat_enabled() function currently does not correctly report that PAT is enabled in such environments. The fix is implemented in init_cache_modes() by setting pat_bp_enabled to true in init_cache_modes() for the case that commit 99c13b8c8896d7bcb92753bf ("x86/mm/pat: Don't report PAT on CPUs that don't support it") failed to account for.
This patch fixes a regression that some users are experiencing with Linux as a Xen Dom0 driving particular Intel graphics devices by correctly reporting to the Intel i915 driver that PAT is enabled where previously it was falsely reporting that PAT is disabled.
Fixes: 99c13b8c8896d7bcb92753bf ("x86/mm/pat: Don't report PAT on CPUs that don't support it") Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Chuck Zmudzinski brchuckz@aol.com
Reminder: This patch is a regression fix that is needed on stable versions 5.17 and later.
Then why are you saying it fixes a commit that is in 4.4.y and newer?
confused,
greg k-h
It is true the erroneous reporting of PAT goes back to 4.4.y. But it was not until 5.17.y when the i915 driver was patched with a commit that started using pat_enabled() instead of boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_PAT) and that is when a regression that started annoying users appeared in the kernel. I presume that we only backport patches to stable that fix regressions that are really bothering users, so even though the problem dates to 4.4.y, there is no need to backport before 5.17.y which is when the problem manifested in a way that started bothering users.
If it needs to go back to 4.9.y or so, let's take it all the way back to be consistent everywhere.
thanks,
greg k-h
I presume you want me to prepare the backport patches, or at least the ones that need the patch to be significantly modified to apply to those branches. I expect older versions will need the patch to be significantly modified to apply. If not, please let me know.
I will not know until it hits Linus's tree and the patch is backported then. If there are problems, you will get an email at that point in time.
Is 4.9.y the oldest version we are still supporting?
Yes, the front page of kernel.org lists the active kernel versions.
thanks,
greg k-h