[Xen-devel] Re: "reserve_top_address" and the kernel virtual memory with KML.

["amit regmi" <regmi.amit@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 10:38 PM, Peter Teoh <htmldeveloper@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 1:13 PM, amit regmi <regmi.amit@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I have a Kernel Mode Linux running(KML). I can access kernel
> virtual addresses using User Programs. I wanted to get hold of upper Kernel
> memory (beyond 0xff800000 till 0xffffffff) and experiment a bit. To achieve
> the
> same I requested for a memory hole in "start_kernel" of /init/main.c as
> follows:
>
>     .....
>     printk(linux_banner);
>     setup_arch(&command_line);
>
>     //ask for 8 MB topmost
>     reserve_top_address(8388608ul);
>

Probably this was too early to have called "reserve_top_address" .
I tried shifting this call to the place right before the mem_init() in the same function.

    vfs_caches_init_early();
    cpuset_init_early();

    //ask for 8 MB topmost
    reserve_top_address(8388608ul);

    mem_init();
    enable_debug_pagealloc();

 This time I got a kernel panic instead and the error said "unknown_bootoption+0x0/0x1f0".

according to:

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0806.2/2629.html

it seemed to indicate that the minimum size for reservation (for
purpose of hypervisor implementation) is 128M.   So could that be the
reason why 8MB is not possible?

I think it says that the default 128 MB size allocated for  "vmalloc" can be altered with the "size" parameter.
Again, reserve_top_address also has an impact on the amount of memory given to vmalloc as it resizes the
__VMALLOC_RESERVE  parameter. I am sure it 128M could be a thing to try out.

>     mm_init_owner(&init_mm, &init_task);
>     setup_command_line(command_line);
>     .....
>
> The kernel image din't boot up. I might be reserving at the wrong place in
> code
> or I might be carelessly doing something impossible. On a black screen  I
> got
> the following error:
>
> BUG: Int 6: CR2 00000000
>     EDI C03f5000 ESI 00800000 ......
>     EBX .....
>     err 00000000 ...
> Stack: 00010800 ....
>     ......
>     ......
>
> Is there anywhere else I can plug in the "reserve_top_address" and play with
> the
> kernel space memory ? Certain hypervisors would be doing similar trick but I
> am
> not so sure how.

 

Google says  Xen makes use of "reserve_top_address". May be they can help.

-Regmee

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel