From b6350c21cfe8aa9d65e189509a23c0ea4b8362c2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Toshi Kani Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 15:42:03 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] x86/pat: Document the PAT initialization sequence Update PAT documentation to describe how PAT is initialized under various configurations. Signed-off-by: Toshi Kani Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner Cc: Andrew Morton Cc: Andy Lutomirski Cc: Borislav Petkov Cc: Borislav Petkov Cc: Brian Gerst Cc: Denys Vlasenko Cc: H. Peter Anvin Cc: Juergen Gross Cc: Linus Torvalds Cc: Luis R. Rodriguez Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Toshi Kani Cc: elliott@hpe.com Cc: konrad.wilk@oracle.com Cc: paul.gortmaker@windriver.com Cc: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1458769323-24491-8-git-send-email-toshi.kani@hpe.com Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar --- Documentation/x86/pat.txt | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt index 54944c71b819..2a4ee6302122 100644 --- a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt +++ b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt @@ -196,3 +196,35 @@ Another, more verbose way of getting PAT related debug messages is with "debugpat" boot parameter. With this parameter, various debug messages are printed to dmesg log. +PAT Initialization +------------------ + +The following table describes how PAT is initialized under various +configurations. The PAT MSR must be updated by Linux in order to support WC +and WT attributes. Otherwise, the PAT MSR has the value programmed in it +by the firmware. Note, Xen enables WC attribute in the PAT MSR for guests. + + MTRR PAT Call Sequence PAT State PAT MSR + ========================================================= + E E MTRR -> PAT init Enabled OS + E D MTRR -> PAT init Disabled - + D E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS + D D MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled - + - np/E PAT -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS + - np/D PAT -> PAT disable Disabled - + E !P/E MTRR -> PAT init Disabled BIOS + D !P/E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS + !M !P/E MTRR stub -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS + + Legend + ------------------------------------------------ + E Feature enabled in CPU + D Feature disabled/unsupported in CPU + np "nopat" boot option specified + !P CONFIG_X86_PAT option unset + !M CONFIG_MTRR option unset + Enabled PAT state set to enabled + Disabled PAT state set to disabled + OS PAT initializes PAT MSR with OS setting + BIOS PAT keeps PAT MSR with BIOS setting + -- 2.20.1