MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) control
2 May 1998
Richard Gooch
<[email protected]>

 On Intel Pentium Pro/Pentium II systems the Memory Type Range
 Registers (MTRRs) may be used to control processor access to memory
 ranges. This is most useful when you have a video (VGA) card on a
 PCI or AGP bus. Enabling write-combining allows bus write transfers
 to be combined into a larger transfer before bursting over the
 PCI/AGP bus. This can increase performance of image write operations
 2.5 times or more.

 The CONFIG_MTRR option creates a /proc/mtrr file which may be used
 to manipulate your MTRRs. Typically the X server should use
 this. This should have a reasonably generic interface so that
 similar control registers on other processors can be easily
 supported.


There are two interfaces to /proc/mtrr: one is an ASCII interface
which allows you to read and write. The other is an ioctl()
interface. The ASCII interface is meant for administration. The
ioctl() interface is meant for C programmes (i.e. the X server). The
interfaces are described below, with sample commands and C code.

===============================================================================
Reading MTRRs from the shell:

% cat /proc/mtrr
reg00: base=0x00000000 (   0MB), size= 128MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0x08000000 ( 128MB), size=  64MB: write-back, count=1
===============================================================================
Creating MTRRs from the shell:
# echo "base=0xf8000000 size=0x400000 type=write-combining" >! /proc/mtrr

And the result thereof:
% cat /proc/mtrr
reg00: base=0x00000000 (   0MB), size= 128MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0x08000000 ( 128MB), size=  64MB: write-back, count=1
reg02: base=0xf8000000 (3968MB), size=   4MB: write-combining, count=1

This is for videoram at base address 0xf8000000 and size 4 MBytes. To
find out your base address, you need to look at the output of your X
server, which tells you where the linear framebuffer address is. A
typical line that you may get is:

(--) S3: PCI: 968 rev 0, Linear FB @ 0xf8000000

Note that you should only use the value from the X server, as it may
move the framebuffer base address, so the only value you can trust is
that reported by the X server.

To find out the size of your framebuffer (what, you don't actually
know?), the following line will tell you:

(--) S3: videoram:  4096k

That's 4 MBytes, which is 0x400000 bytes (in hexadecimal).
A patch is being written for XFree86 which will make this automatic:
in other words the X server will manipulate /proc/mtrr using the
ioctl() interface, so users won't have to do anything. If you use a
commercial X server, lobby your vendor to add support for MTRRs.
===============================================================================
Removing MTRRs from the shell:
% echo "disable=2" >! /proc/mtrr
===============================================================================
Reading MTRRs from a C programme using ioctl()'s:

/*  mtrr-show.c

   Source file for mtrr-show (example programme to show MTRRs using ioctl()'s)

   Copyright (C) 1997-1998  Richard Gooch

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
   (at your option) any later version.

   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.

   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
   Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

   Richard Gooch may be reached by email at  [email protected]
   The postal address is:
     Richard Gooch, c/o ATNF, P. O. Box 76, Epping, N.S.W., 2121, Australia.
*/

/*
   This programme will use an ioctl() on /proc/mtrr to show the current MTRR
   settings. This is an alternative to reading /proc/mtrr.


   Written by      Richard Gooch   17-DEC-1997

   Last updated by Richard Gooch   2-MAY-1998


*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#define MTRR_NEED_STRINGS
#include <asm/mtrr.h>

#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
#define ERRSTRING strerror (errno)


int main ()
{
   int fd;
   struct mtrr_gentry gentry;

   if ( ( fd = open ("/proc/mtrr", O_RDONLY, 0) ) == -1 )
   {
       if (errno == ENOENT)
       {
           fputs ("/proc/mtrr not found: not supported or you don't have a PPro?\n",
                  stderr);
           exit (1);
       }
       fprintf (stderr, "Error opening /proc/mtrr\t%s\n", ERRSTRING);
       exit (2);
   }
   for (gentry.regnum = 0; ioctl (fd, MTRRIOC_GET_ENTRY, &gentry) == 0;
        ++gentry.regnum)
   {
       if (gentry.size < 1)
       {
           fprintf (stderr, "Register: %u disabled\n", gentry.regnum);
           continue;
       }
       fprintf (stderr, "Register: %u base: 0x%lx size: 0x%lx type: %s\n",
                gentry.regnum, gentry.base, gentry.size,
                mtrr_strings[gentry.type]);
   }
   if (errno == EINVAL) exit (0);
   fprintf (stderr, "Error doing ioctl(2) on /dev/mtrr\t%s\n", ERRSTRING);
   exit (3);
}   /*  End Function main  */
===============================================================================
Creating MTRRs from a C programme using ioctl()'s:

/*  mtrr-add.c

   Source file for mtrr-add (example programme to add an MTRRs using ioctl())

   Copyright (C) 1997-1998  Richard Gooch

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
   (at your option) any later version.

   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.

   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
   Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

   Richard Gooch may be reached by email at  [email protected]
   The postal address is:
     Richard Gooch, c/o ATNF, P. O. Box 76, Epping, N.S.W., 2121, Australia.
*/

/*
   This programme will use an ioctl() on /proc/mtrr to add an entry. The first
   available mtrr is used. This is an alternative to writing /proc/mtrr.


   Written by      Richard Gooch   17-DEC-1997

   Last updated by Richard Gooch   2-MAY-1998


*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#define MTRR_NEED_STRINGS
#include <asm/mtrr.h>

#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
#define ERRSTRING strerror (errno)


int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
   int fd;
   struct mtrr_sentry sentry;

   if (argc != 4)
   {
       fprintf (stderr, "Usage:\tmtrr-add base size type\n");
       exit (1);
   }
   sentry.base = strtoul (argv[1], NULL, 0);
   sentry.size = strtoul (argv[2], NULL, 0);
   for (sentry.type = 0; sentry.type < MTRR_NUM_TYPES; ++sentry.type)
   {
       if (strcmp (argv[3], mtrr_strings[sentry.type]) == 0) break;
   }
   if (sentry.type >= MTRR_NUM_TYPES)
   {
       fprintf (stderr, "Illegal type: \"%s\"\n", argv[3]);
       exit (2);
   }
   if ( ( fd = open ("/proc/mtrr", O_WRONLY, 0) ) == -1 )
   {
       if (errno == ENOENT)
       {
           fputs ("/proc/mtrr not found: not supported or you don't have a PPro?\n",
                  stderr);
           exit (3);
       }
       fprintf (stderr, "Error opening /proc/mtrr\t%s\n", ERRSTRING);
       exit (4);
   }
   if (ioctl (fd, MTRRIOC_ADD_ENTRY, &sentry) == -1)
   {
       fprintf (stderr, "Error doing ioctl(2) on /dev/mtrr\t%s\n", ERRSTRING);
       exit (5);
   }
   fprintf (stderr, "Sleeping for 5 seconds so you can see the new entry\n");
   sleep (5);
   close (fd);
   fputs ("I've just closed /proc/mtrr so now the new entry should be gone\n",
          stderr);
}   /*  End Function main  */
===============================================================================

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