Re: [RFT] Support for ~2144 SCSI discs

[Douglas Gilbert]

Richard Gooch wrote:
> 
> Mike Anderson writes:
> > In previous experiments trying to connect up to 512 devices we
> > switched to vmalloc because the static nature of sd.c's allocation
> > exceeds 128k which I assumed was the max for kmalloc YMMV.
> 
> Yes, I figure on switching to vmalloc() and putting in an
> in_interrupt() test in sd_init() to make sure the vmalloc() is safe.
> 
> Eric: do you happen to know why there are these GFP_ATOMIC flags?
> To my knowledge, nothing calls sd_init() outside of process context.

Richard,
I've seen GFP_KERNEL take 10 minutes in lk 2.4.6 . The 
mm gets tweaked pretty often so it is difficult to know 
exactly how it will react when memory is tight. A time 
bound would be useful on GFP_KERNEL.

<opinion> It is best to find out quickly there is 
not enough memory and have some alternate strategy 
to cope with that problem. GFP_KERNEL in its current 
form should be taken out and shot. </opinion>

Doug Gilbert