[PATCH v9 9/9] PCI: Add a new 'boot_display' attribute
Bjorn Helgaas
helgaas at kernel.org
Fri Jul 18 17:36:48 UTC 2025
On Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 12:29:05PM -0500, Mario Limonciello wrote:
> On 7/18/2025 12:25 PM, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 12:38:12PM -0500, Mario Limonciello wrote:
> > > From: Mario Limonciello <mario.limonciello at amd.com>
> > >
> > > On systems with multiple GPUs there can be uncertainty which GPU is the
> > > primary one used to drive the display at bootup. In some desktop
> > > environments this can lead to increased power consumption because
> > > secondary GPUs may be used for rendering and never go to a low power
> > > state. In order to disambiguate this add a new sysfs attribute
> > > 'boot_display' that uses the output of video_is_primary_device() to
> > > populate whether a PCI device was used for driving the display.
> >
> > > +What: /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../boot_display
> > > +Date: October 2025
> > > +Contact: Linux PCI developers <linux-pci at vger.kernel.org>
> > > +Description:
> > > + This file indicates that displays connected to the device were
> > > + used to display the boot sequence. If a display connected to
> > > + the device was used to display the boot sequence the file will
> > > + be present and contain "1".
> >
> > > int __must_check pci_create_sysfs_dev_files(struct pci_dev *pdev)
> > > {
> > > + int retval;
> > > +
> > > if (!sysfs_initialized)
> > > return -EACCES;
> > > + retval = pci_create_boot_display_file(pdev);
> >
> > In addition to Mani's question about whether /sys/bus/pci/ is the
> > right place for this (which is a very good question), it's also been
> > pointed out to me that we've been trying to get rid of
> > pci_create_sysfs_dev_files() for years.
> >
> > If it's possible to make this a static attribute that would be much,
> > much cleaner.
>
> Right - I tried to do this, but the problem is at the time the PCI device is
> created the information needed to make the judgement isn't ready. The
> options end up being:
> * a sysfs file for every display device with 0/1
> * a sysfs file that is not accurate until later in the boot
What's missing? The specifics might be helpful if someone has another
crack at getting rid of pci_create_sysfs_dev_files() in the future.
> So IMO it /needs/ to come later.
>
> >
> > > + if (retval)
> > > + return retval;
> > > +
> > > return pci_create_resource_files(pdev);
> > > }
> > > @@ -1671,6 +1716,7 @@ void pci_remove_sysfs_dev_files(struct pci_dev *pdev)
> > > if (!sysfs_initialized)
> > > return;
> > > + pci_remove_boot_display_file(pdev);
> > > pci_remove_resource_files(pdev);
> > > }
> > > --
> > > 2.43.0
> > >
>
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