Re: [Xen-devel] Design doc of adding ACPI support for arm64 on Xen - version 3

["Jan Beulich" <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

>>> On 18.08.15 at 08:43, <julien.grall@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Jan,
> 
> On 17/08/2015 22:10, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>>>> Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxxxxx> 08/17/15 6:27 PM >>>
>>> On 17/08/2015 08:33, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>>>>>> On 14.08.15 at 16:59, <shannon.zhao@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> b) Create EFI_MEMORY_DESCRIPTOR table. This will add memory start and
>>>>> size information of Dom0. And Dom0 will get the memory information
>>>>> through this EFI table.
>>>>
>>>> To some degree the same applies here: While I see that you have no
>>>> legacy vehicle like x86's E820, I also don't see how Dom0 - not being
>>>> able to make EFI boot or runtime services calls - would get hold of this
>>>> table. And if a non-EFI mechanism is to be used here, using the EFI
>>>> data structure would turn out to be just an arbitrary (or convenience)
>>>> decision, not something inherently required. Which I think should be
>>>> said explicitly if so, rather than leaving the reader guess.
>>>
>>> It's not an arbitrary decision, when UEFI stub in Linux is using device
>>> tree properties to pass the UEFI table to the kernel ([1]).
>>>
>>> When booting on Xen with ACPI, dom0 will use the non-EFI entry point.
>>> The easiest way to pass the memory information to Linux is using the
>>> UEFI DT properties.
>>
>> In which case it is even more arbitrary to use the EFI data structure to
>> convey memory information (instead of expressing it in plain DT, which is
>> how I blindly assume non-EFI does it). Of course there's the small chance
>> that "UEFI DT properties" implies a certain binary format, but it's still 
> odd
>> for a non-EFI entry point to assume EFI properties to be there...
> 
> Linux is able to boot either on ACPI or DT. When ACPI is used, the EFI 
> stub (mandatory) will create a small DT in order to pass the command 
> line and other informations (such as the EFI memory table) to the 
> kernel. This is because the stub is self-contained and and never use 
> variable living in the kernel.
> 
> In order to know whether you are booting using DT or ACPI, they check if 
> the DT contains only the /chosen node.
> 
> Actually the EFI-stub will always jumped on the non-EFI path.
> 
> By passing the minimal DT as suggested on the design doc, we are 
> avoiding to get a different code path for Xen in the kernel and we are 
> finally acting as the EFI-stub was a nop for DOM0.
> 
> So I don't see how this would be arbitrary...

Indeed with your explanation this doesn't look arbitrary anymore.
But none of this was spelled out in the original document.

Jan


_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel