[PATCH 2/5] spi: pl022: use generic DMA slave configuration if possible

Arnd Bergmann arnd at arndb.de
Thu Feb 7 14:42:54 EST 2013


On Thursday 07 February 2013, Linus Walleij wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Arnd Bergmann <arnd at arndb.de> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 29 January 2013, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> 
> >> > +   pl022->dummypage = kmalloc(PAGE_SIZE, GFP_KERNEL);
> >>
> >> Where this memory will be freed?
> >> In dependence of the answer could you consider to use
> >> devm_kmalloc or __get_free_page?
> >
> > There is another function like this called pl022_dma_probe()
> > that has the same allocation, and it gets freed in the same place.
> >
> > It's probably worth changing this into something different, but
> > I felt that it didn't belong into this patch. I was also not
> > sure if the best option would be dmam_alloc_coherent, dev_kzalloc,
> > or __get_free_page.
> 
> Actually I once read about a feature where the kernel provides
> a static page full of zeroes or something like this, that would be
> ideal to use in cases like this, then all of this dummy page
> allocation and freeing can be deleted.

You mean empty_zero_page? That only works if this page is
read-only from the perspective of the DMA controller, but
then it would be a good fit, yes.

	Arnd



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