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Re: Hypervisor issues with PTE



_PAGE_GNTTAB is set to use the 3th free bit of the page table entry (0x800).
In NetBSD/i386 it's defined as PG_X. After looking at the code a bit, i think it's used by the software execute-disable feature. It hasn't always been in the code so i guess you can *theorically* remove it. Would be easier if Xen actually provided execute-disable pages, we could remove this bit without any loss... Execute-disable hardware support can be found on any new machine since about 2 years, but it requires PAE to be enabled.

Michael Richardson wrote:
Re: http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-xen/2006/09/12/0001.html
and http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-xen/2006/07/26/0007.html

Frank van der Linden wrote:

> From: Frank van der Linden <fvdl%netbsd.org@localhost>
> List: port-xen
> Date: 09/12/2006 21:06:56
>
> Anyway, this is just a note that I tracked down this problem. When
> compiled with debugging options on, Xen uses an unused PTE bit to track
> granted table pages, in an effort to catch cleanup problems early.
> However, the NetBSD pmap already uses all of those bits. So, at the
> first attempt to enter a tracked (pv_list) mapping, Xen refuses, because
> the same bit it is using for debugging purposes is set in the PTE. The
> definition (_PAGE_GNTTAB) is even marked as "has to be disabled for *BSD").

> I guess there are Xen compiles out there that have debug on by default,
> and with the current Xen sources, NetBSD (and *BSD in general), won't
> boot on that.

Is the use of all PTE bits an absolute in NetBSD (we can never fix this),
or is there some bit of work that has not yet been done?

I ask because Fedora Core certainly ships with hypervisor debugging on,
and it would be nice to be able to run NetBSD guests on "stock" Xen-capable systems.

If we can never fix this in NetBSD --- that's fine, I'll build my own hypervisor
kernel. But, it will become a major PITA as Xen becomes more popular.









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