Re: Memory problem with bttv driver

Stephan von Krawczynski (skraw@ithnet.com)
Wed, 16 Jan 2002 18:24:09 +0100


On Wed, 16 Jan 2002 10:57:47 +0100
Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org> wrote:

> > > > > Yes. Instead of remapping vmalloced kernel memory it gives you
shared> > > > > anonymous pages, then does zerocopy DMA using kiobufs. You may
run in> > > > > trouble with >4GB machines.
> > > >
> > > > Interesting.
> > > > What's the problem on > 4GB ?
> > >
> > > The bt878/848 is a 32bit PCI device, it simply can't go DMA to main
> > > memory above 4GB. At least on ia32, on architecures with a iommu
> > > (sparc, ...) it should work without trouble.
> >
> > Sorry, maybe I should have clarified: what is the problem with allocating
those> > pages below 4GB in a >4GB box?
>
> do_anonymous_page() may give you pages above 4GB.

Guess it is a bit ... flaky ... to just do a

page = alloc_page(GFP_HIGHUSER);
if (!page)
goto no_mem;

in

do_anonymous_page()

I guess it should be somehow configurable (parameter). Your idea of using it
may grow and mem too, for sure.

Regards,
Stephan

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