x86/pat: Document the PAT initialization sequence

Update PAT documentation to describe how PAT is initialized under
various configurations.

Signed-off-by: Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@hpe.com>
Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Cc: Brian Gerst <brgerst@gmail.com>
Cc: Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com>
Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@hp.com>
Cc: elliott@hpe.com
Cc: konrad.wilk@oracle.com
Cc: paul.gortmaker@windriver.com
Cc: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1458769323-24491-8-git-send-email-toshi.kani@hpe.com
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 32 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
index 54944c71b819..2a4ee6302122 100644
--- a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
+++ b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
@@ -196,3 +196,35 @@ Another, more verbose way of getting PAT related debug messages is with
 "debugpat" boot parameter. With this parameter, various debug messages are
 printed to dmesg log.
 
+PAT Initialization
+------------------
+
+The following table describes how PAT is initialized under various
+configurations. The PAT MSR must be updated by Linux in order to support WC
+and WT attributes. Otherwise, the PAT MSR has the value programmed in it
+by the firmware. Note, Xen enables WC attribute in the PAT MSR for guests.
+
+ MTRR PAT   Call Sequence               PAT State  PAT MSR
+ =========================================================
+ E    E     MTRR -> PAT init            Enabled    OS
+ E    D     MTRR -> PAT init            Disabled    -
+ D    E     MTRR -> PAT disable         Disabled   BIOS
+ D    D     MTRR -> PAT disable         Disabled    -
+ -    np/E  PAT  -> PAT disable         Disabled   BIOS
+ -    np/D  PAT  -> PAT disable         Disabled    -
+ E    !P/E  MTRR -> PAT init            Disabled   BIOS
+ D    !P/E  MTRR -> PAT disable         Disabled   BIOS
+ !M   !P/E  MTRR stub -> PAT disable    Disabled   BIOS
+
+ Legend
+ ------------------------------------------------
+ E         Feature enabled in CPU
+ D         Feature disabled/unsupported in CPU
+ np        "nopat" boot option specified
+ !P        CONFIG_X86_PAT option unset
+ !M        CONFIG_MTRR option unset
+ Enabled   PAT state set to enabled
+ Disabled  PAT state set to disabled
+ OS        PAT initializes PAT MSR with OS setting
+ BIOS      PAT keeps PAT MSR with BIOS setting
+