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DateSat, 25 Sep 2004 00:44:45 -0700
FromWilliam Lee Irwin III <>
Subject[vm 0/6] convert remap_page_range() to remap_pfn_range() in a patch series shorter than 76 patches
Resolve physical address overflow issue in the remap_page_range() API
by replacing it with remap_pfn_range(), which accepts its physical
address argument as a pfn, hence allowing the use of a single-precision
physical address argument without the risk of overflow at the API
boundary. The above issue has hobbled support for various 32-bit
architectures, including some embedded systems (ppc440 IIRC), caused
persistent portability issues for sound drivers for legacy systems
(sparc32; unfortunately this patch alone does not fully resolve those),
and according to John Fusco's reports, made drivers for some PCI-X
hardware infeasible to port to recent ia32 PAE enterprise systems. With
this patch series applied, physical address overflows on 32-bit systems
caused directly by remap_page_range() are gone forever, and ca. 100LOC
of cut-and-waste driver code are swept out of existence alongside them.


-- wli

P.S.: The existing solution to the sparc32 issue was to pass a double
	precision representation of the physical address as 2 single-
	precision arguments in an API (io_remap_page_range()) whose
	argument corresponding to those two was a single single-
	precision argument on most/all other architectures. The
	sparc32-specific issue requires more work beyond these patches
	to rectify. The most apparent consequence of the API skew is
	that drivers don't compile on sparc32 when they use
	io_remap_page_range() due to passing insufficient arguments,
	or vice-versa for drivers originally written for sparc32.
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