Public bug reported: Hi,
when using uvesafb or vesafb, these drivers will create uncached-minus PAT entries for the framebuffer memory because they use ioremap(). WHen the framebuffer memory intersects with the video RAM used by Xorg, the complete video RAM will be mapped uncached-minus what results in a server performance penalty. Here are the correct MTRR entries created by uvesafb: schli...@netbook:~$ cat /proc/mtrr reg00: base=0x000000000 ( 0MB), size= 2048MB, count=1: write-back reg01: base=0x06ff00000 ( 1791MB), size= 1MB, count=1: uncachable reg02: base=0x070000000 ( 1792MB), size= 256MB, count=1: uncachable reg03: base=0x0d0000000 ( 3328MB), size= 16MB, count=1: write-combining And here are the problematic PAT entries: schli...@netbook:~$ sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/x86/pat_memtype_list PAT memtype list: write-back @ 0x0-0x1000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fedd000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 uncached-minus @ 0xd0000000-0xe0000000 <-- created by xserver-xorg uncached-minus @ 0xd0000000-0xd1194000 <-- created by uvesafb uncached-minus @ 0xf4000000-0xf4009000 uncached-minus @ 0xf4200000-0xf4400000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5000000-0xf5010000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5100000-0xf5104000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5400000-0xf5404000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5404000-0xf5405000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5404000-0xf5405000 uncached-minus @ 0xfed00000-0xfed01000 Therefore I created the attached patch for uvesafb which uses ioremap_wc() to create the correct PAT entries, as shown below: schli...@netbook:~$ sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/x86/pat_memtype_list PAT memtype list: write-back @ 0x0-0x1000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fedd000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee2000-0x6fee3000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 uncached-minus @ 0x6fee3000-0x6fee4000 write-combining @ 0xd0000000-0xe0000000 write-combining @ 0xd0000000-0xd1194000 uncached-minus @ 0xf4000000-0xf4009000 uncached-minus @ 0xf4200000-0xf4400000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5000000-0xf5010000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5100000-0xf5104000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5400000-0xf5404000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5404000-0xf5405000 uncached-minus @ 0xf5404000-0xf5405000 uncached-minus @ 0xfed00000-0xfed01000 This results in a performance gain, objectively measurable with e.g. x11perf -comppixwin10 -comppixwin100 -comppixwin500: 1: x11perf_xaa_lucid.log 2: x11perf_xaa_lucid_patched.log 1 2 Operation -------- ----------------- ----------------- 300000.0 296000.0 ( 0.99) Composite 10x10 from window to window 38400.0 38500.0 ( 1.00) Composite 100x100 from window to window 1760.0 1760.0 ( 1.00) Composite 500x500 from window to window 124000.0 202000.0 ( 1.63) Composite 10x10 from pixmap to window 3340.0 24400.0 ( 7.31) Composite 100x100 from pixmap to window 131.0 1150.0 ( 8.78) Composite 500x500 from pixmap to window You can see the serve performance gain when composing larger pixmaps to window. Please consider applying/pushing the attached patch. I'll also attach a very similar patch for vesafb. Kind regards, Thomas ** Affects: linux (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- serve Xorg performance penalty due to [u]vesafb creating wrong PAT entries https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/574733 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs