Hi Suresh, 

Now , I want to clarify 2 type of errors :
a) some interrupt doesn't work through Interrupt -remapped IO-APIC. 
b) an interrupt is coming , there is an IO-APIC entry to know how to route it 
to which CPU, 
but VT-d entry is empty, ITP will report Present bit is clear. 

BIOS should provide simple IO-APIC entries and VT-d entries ,although we don't 
trust them. 
in the issue that we have happened to is of the second case. 

1 , 
> As I mentioned earlier, the current design already ensures that all the 
> IO-APIC
> RTE's are masked between the time we enable interrupt-remapping to the time
> when the IO-APIC RTE's are configured correctly.
> 
> So I looked at why you are seeing the problem with v2.6.32 but not with the
> recent kernels. And I think I found out the reason.

I want to know what masking IO-APIC means? 
I know from BIOS point of view ,they can disable IO-APIC, just like no IO-APIC 
equipment. 
So masking IO-APIC entries equals to disable IO-APIC ?  when a interrupt is 
coming ,  
System doesn't make it through IO-APIC ,and directly to Local APIC ? 
If yes , I have a question : 
I first draw a time line :
    a)                          Clear IO-APIC table                    c)  
    
|-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|
Change VT-d table                  b)                   create IO-APIC table 
and VT-d table and initialize them
Empty table                       empty IO-APIC table   
When interrupt is coming between a) and b) ?   I suppose the error : "VT-d 
entry 's Present bit is clear ).
When interrupt is coming between b) and c) ?   ??
When interrupt is coming after c) point ?               I suppose everything 
will work fine.





2,  
We know maybe bios will provide a simple IO-APIC table for us, although we OS 
doesn't believe it. 
I also did a test : 

        -  disable x2apic in BIOS. 
find kernel source 3.3.8 , and delete that patch (comment that key line) .
I found that it would display :
     Kernel panic - not syncing: timer doesn't work through Interrupt-remapped 
IO-APIC.   
But if we disable x2apic in BIOS , rhel6.2 doesn't need any patch, it can run. 
Very strange. 

        - enable x2apic in BIOS 
        delete your patch from 3.3.8 , same issue with us. VT-d entry error 
(Present bit0 is clear ).
But it doesn't display the error above(don't tell me it doesn't work through 
IO-APIC ,  
it represents io-apic entry exists) .


-- Bob(LinBao Zhang)
HP linux kernel enginner

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