fw_devlinks preventing a panel driver from probing
Saravana Kannan
saravanak at google.com
Thu Oct 24 22:55:07 UTC 2024
On Wed, Oct 23, 2024 at 1:52 AM Tomi Valkeinen
<tomi.valkeinen at ideasonboard.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On 22/10/2024 19:07, Saravana Kannan wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 12:51 AM Tomi Valkeinen
> > <tomi.valkeinen at ideasonboard.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On 22/10/2024 02:29, Saravana Kannan wrote:
> >>> Hi Tomi,
> >>>
> >>> Sorry it took a while to get back.
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 4:52 AM Tomi Valkeinen
> >>> <tomi.valkeinen at ideasonboard.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> We have an issue where two devices have dependencies to each other,
> >>>> according to drivers/base/core.c's fw_devlinks, and this prevents them
> >>>> from probing. I've been adding debugging to the core.c, but so far I
> >>>> don't quite grasp the issue, so I thought to ask. Maybe someone can
> >>>> instantly say that this just won't work...
> >>>>
> >>>> So, we have two devices, DSS (display subsystem) and an LVDS panel. The
> >>>> DSS normally outputs parallel video from its video ports (VP), but it
> >>>> has an integrated LVDS block (OLDI, Open LVDS Display Interface). The
> >>>> OLDI block takes input from DSS's parallel outputs. The OLDI is not
> >>>> modeled as a separate device (neither in the DT nor in the Linux device
> >>>> model) as it has no register space, and is controlled fully by the DSS.
> >>>>
> >>>> To support dual-link LVDS, the DSS has two OLDI instances. They both
> >>>> take their input from the same parallel video port, but each OLDI sends
> >>>> alternate lines forward. So for a dual-link setup the connections would
> >>>> be like this:
> >>>>
> >>>> +-----+-----+ +-------+ +----------+
> >>>> | | | | | | |
> >>>> | | VP1 +----+--->| OLDI0 +-------->| |
> >>>> | | | | | | | |
> >>>> | DSS +-----+ | +-------+ | Panel |
> >>>> | | | | | | | |
> >>>> | | VP2 | +--->| OLDI1 +-------->| |
> >>>> | | | | | | |
> >>>> +-----+-----+ +-------+ +----------+
> >>>>
> >>>> As the OLDI is not a separate device, it also does not have an
> >>>> independent device tree node, but rather it's inside DSS's node. The DSS
> >>>> parallel outputs are under a normal "ports" node, but OLDI ports are
> >>>> under "oldi-txes/ports" (see below for dts to clarify this).
> >>>>
> >>>> And I think (guess...) this is the root of the issue we're seeing, as it
> >>>> means the following, one or both of which might be the reason for this
> >>>> issue:
> >>>>
> >>>> - OLDI fwnodes don't have an associated struct device *. I think the
> >>>> reason is that the OLDI media graph ports are one level too deep in the
> >>>> hierarchy. So while the DSS ports are associated with the DSS device,
> >>>> OLDI ports are not.
> >>>
> >>> This is the root cause of the issue in some sense. fw_devlink doesn't
> >>> know that DSS depends on the VP. In the current DT, it only appears as
> >>> if the OLDI depends on VP. See further below for the fix.
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> - The VP ports inside the DSS point to OLDI ports, which are also inside
> >>>> DSS. So ports from a device point to ports in the same device (and back).
> >>>>
> >>>> If I understand the fw_devlink code correctly, in a normal case the
> >>>> links formed with media graphs are marked as a cycle
> >>>> (FWLINK_FLAG_CYCLE), and then ignored as far as probing goes.
> >>>>
> >>>> What we see here is that when using a single-link OLDI panel, the panel
> >>>> driver's probe never gets called, as it depends on the OLDI, and the
> >>>> link between the panel and the OLDI is not a cycle.
> >>>>
> >>>> The DSS driver probes, but the probe fails as it requires all the panel
> >>>> devices to have been probed (and thus registered to the DRM framework)
> >>>> before it can finish its setup.
> >>>>
> >>>> With dual-link, probing does happen and the drivers work. But I believe
> >>>> this is essentially an accident, in the sense that the first link
> >>>> between the panel and the OLDI still blocks the probing, but the second
> >>>> links allows the driver core to traverse the devlinks further, causing
> >>>> it to mark the links to the panel as FWLINK_FLAG_CYCLE (or maybe it only
> >>>> marks one of those links, and that's enough).
> >>>>
> >>>> If I set fw_devlink=off as a kernel parameter, the probing proceeds
> >>>> successfully in both single- and dual-link cases.
> >>>>
> >>>> Now, my questions is, is this a bug in the driver core, a bug in the DT
> >>>> bindings, or something in between (DT is fine-ish, but the structure is
> >>>> something that won't be supported by the driver core).
> >>>>
> >>>> And a follow-up question, regardless of the answer to the first one:
> >>>> which direction should I go from here =).
> >>>>
> >>>> The device tree data (simplified) for this is as follows, first the
> >>>> dual-link case, then the single-link case:
> >>>>
> >>>> /* Dual-link */
> >>>>
> >>>> dss: dss at 30200000 {
> >>>> compatible = "ti,am625-dss";
> >>>>
> >>>> oldi-txes {
> >>>> oldi0: oldi at 0 {
> >>>> oldi0_ports: ports {
> >>>> port at 0 {
> >>>> oldi_0_in: endpoint {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&dpi0_out0>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> port at 1 {
> >>>> oldi_0_out: endpoint {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&lcd_in0>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> oldi1: oldi at 1 {
> >>>> oldi1_ports: ports {
> >>>> port at 0 {
> >>>> oldi_1_in: endpoint {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&dpi0_out1>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> port at 1 {
> >>>> oldi_1_out: endpoint {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&lcd_in1>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> dss_ports: ports {
> >>>> port at 0 {
> >>>> dpi0_out0: endpoint at 0 {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&oldi_0_in>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> dpi0_out1: endpoint at 1 {
> >>>> remote-endpoint = <&oldi_1_in>;
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> display {
> >>>> compatible = "microtips,mf-101hiebcaf0", "panel-simple";
> >>>
> >>> In here, add this new property that I added some time back.
> >>>
> >>> post-init-providers = <&oldi-txes>;
> >>
> >> Thanks! This helps:
> >>
> >> post-init-providers = <&oldi0>;
> >>
> >> or for dual-link:
> >>
> >> post-init-providers = <&oldi0>, <&oldi1>;
> >>
> >>> This tells fw_devlink that VP doesn't depend on this node for
> >>> initialization/probing. This property is basically available to break
> >>> cycles in DT and mark one of the edges of the cycles as "not a real
> >>> init dependency".
> >>>
> >>> You should do the same for the single link case too.
> >>
> >> While this helps, it's not very nice... Every new DT overlay that uses
> >> OLDI display needs to have these.
> >
> > Actually, taking a closer look at the DT and assuming I am visualizing
> > it correctly in my head, fw_devlink should notice the cycle between
> > oldi-txes and display and shouldn't block display from probing. Can
> > you check the cycle detection code and see where it's bailing out
> > early and not marking the fwnode link with the CYCLE flag?
> >
> > __fw_devlink_relax_cycles() is where you want to look. There are a
> > bunch of debug log messages inside it and around where it's called
> > from.
>
> I'm not quite sure how to read the debug messages. I have attached three
> kernel logs, with the debug prints enabled in drivers/base/core.c. The
> "fixed" is the one with the post-init-providers.
>
> I load the display drivers as modules after the main boot has happened,
> and at the end of the logs I have the kernel prints when I load the
> modules. The single-link.txt also shows the debugfs/devices_deferred file.
>
> The relevant strings to search are "dss", "oldi" and "display" (display
> is the panel).
>
> So... All devlinks are supplier-consumer links. How are those created
> with an OF media graph, as there's no clear supplier nor consumer. In
> this particular case I see that display is marked as a consumer of oldi,
> but also dss is marked as a consumer of oldi. Is this just, essentially,
> random?
No, the cyclic links you see are "sync state only" links. They don't
enforce any ordering other than "sync_state()" callbacks. So, it's not
random. In this example, it just ensures that the sync_state()
callbacks of display and dss will only get called after both those
devices probe. If it's confusing, try to understand what
fw_devlink=permissive does. When we see a cycle, we just put all the
devices in the cycle in "permissive" mode wrt each other.
> Also, as there's no separate device for OLDI, I don't see oldi at all in
> /sys/class/devlink/. But what I see there is a bit odd...
>
> For dual link I get:
>
> platform:display--platform:30200000.dss
>
> which, I guess, makes sense. But for single link fixed case, I don't
> have anything there...
>
> > Also, can you check debugfs/devices_deferred, or the
> > "wait_for_supplier" file under /sys/devices/..../display/ to make sure
> > it's actually stuck on oldi-txes? Just to make cure it's not some
> > other corner case that's triggered by oldi-txes?
> >
> >> I'm still confused about why this is needed. OF graphs are _always_
> >> two-way links. Doesn't that mean that OF graphs never can be used for
> >> dependencies, as they go both ways?
> >
> > Good question :) Yes, they'll always be ignored as cycles. But with
> > post-init-providers, it's actually better to add it so that cycles are
> > broken and better ordering is enforced. See my talk at LPC referee
> > talk about fw_devlink to see all the benefits you get from it. :)
>
> Thanks for the pointer! It was interesting and I now understand the
> whole devlink thing better, although I have to say the details still
> escape me... =)
>
> Also, isn't post-init-providers describing software behavior, not
> hardware? It doesn't sound like something we should have in the DT.
Not really. In real hardware, there can't be a cycle for
initialization. And the current DT properties don't tell us which link
is not needed for initialization. And post-init-providers is for
describing which dependency is not needed for hardware initialization.
Take a look at the docs in the dt-schema for post-init-providers and
that might help.
> >> If so, shouldn't we just always
> >> ignore all OF graphs for dependency checking?
> >
> > There are cases when two devices A and B have remote-endpoints between
> > them and ALSO have for example a gpio dependency between them. Where
> > the gpio is the "post-init-supplier". If we don't parse
> > remote-endpoint and mark the cycles, cases like these don't get to
> > probe.
>
> I'm sorry, I don't understand this. If we have 1) A and B with a (one
> way) gpio dependency, and 2) A and B with a (one way) gpio dependency
> _and_ two way media graph dependency, shouldn't the cases behave
> identically, as the graph dependency should just be ignored?
Let's assume in both cases the A and B point to each other using
remote-endpoints. Let's also assume in both cases A says it needs a
GPIO from B. But the real dependency for probing is that B needs A to
probe first (due to the remote end point).
The only difference between case 1 and 2 is whether fw_devlink
supports remote-endpoint parsing.
In case 1, fw_devlink has no way of knowing there is a cycle between A
and B because it doesn't know that B depends on A (due to
remote-endpoint). So it can't break any cycles and permanently
prevents A and B from probing because all it sees is that it needs B
to provide a GPIO to A.
In case 2, fw_devlink sees that B also depends on A. So there's a
cycle and marks them both as part of a cycle. And now A and B can
probe.
Also, forgot to say this last time: we need to support remote-endpoint
to ensure sync_state() callbacks work correctly when X and Y have
remote-endpoints between them.
> Or maybe I don't understand the example case at all... Why would the
> gpio be a post-init-supplier? Isn't gpio something you want at init time?
Apparently not. There are examples of GPIOs that are used only
acquired (get()) at run time in reaction to some event.
Anyway, with all that said, I think I have a solution in mind for you
that should allow devices to probe without post-init-providers. But
I'll need to make the changes and then test it. Let me send it to you
in a few days. Btw, you should always use post-init-providers to break
cycles and do better enforcing of probe/suspend/resume/shutdown order.
-Saravana
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