Re: [RFC PATCH v2 0/3] cxl: Provide explicit RAM region creation for Type-2 providers

From: Dave Jiang

Date: Wed Oct 14 2026 - 12:23:44 EST




On 10/14/26 8:34 AM, Lucero Palau, Alejandro wrote:
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> On 07/10/2026 10:05, Richard Cheng wrote:
>> A Type-2 provider uses devm_cxl_probe_mem() to register its memdev
>> and obtain an HPA range. This requires an existing committed region,
>> so registration fails when firmware has not configured one.
>>
>> Firmware may provide a suitable CFMWS window without programming a
>> region.
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> Hi Richard,
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> FWIW, I unsuccessfully  tried to explain this possibility to "BIOS people". The fact is, nowadays for AMD and I think for Intel as well, if there is no CXL device detected with CXL.mem enabled, the BIOS will neither set HDMs  nor there will be a CFMWS.


Hmmmm....don't they have to reserve CFMWS for hotplug?

DJ

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>> Hot-added devices can have the same requirement. A provider
>> needs its endpoint topology established before deciding when to
>> create a region and how much memory to map.
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> Another unsuccessfully discussion was to avoid BIOS setting HDMs at hotplug time as this could race with host dynamic regions creation.
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> I'm commenting these two things here for maybe having a community/kernel discussion with the goal of defining what BIOSes should do and mostly what they should not do if they want to be compatible with kernel expectations.
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