From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Return-Path: Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2017 17:50:33 +0100 From: Greg KH To: Mason Cc: Bjorn Helgaas , Bjorn Helgaas , linux-pci Subject: Re: Pointers for writing a good PCIe driver Message-ID: <20170212165033.GA31833@kroah.com> References: <05046a8a-ba9f-26f9-4c93-f657f9da6294@free.fr> <20170207200656.GA11659@bhelgaas-glaptop.roam.corp.google.com> <20170207214758.GC11659@bhelgaas-glaptop.roam.corp.google.com> <0f22720c-e47d-59f6-b5f7-5e40f4a1759d@free.fr> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <0f22720c-e47d-59f6-b5f7-5e40f4a1759d@free.fr> List-ID: On Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 11:56:31PM +0100, Mason wrote: > On 07/02/2017 22:47, Bjorn Helgaas wrote: > > On Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 02:06:56PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote: > >> On Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 04:55:28PM +0100, Mason wrote: > >>> On 06/02/2017 16:54, Mason wrote: > >>> > >>>> My platform ( arch/arm/mach-tango ) provides a PCIe controller from PLDA. > >>>> > >>>> I do have access to a driver that works for a few PCIe boards, but it's > >>>> an ancient out-of-tree driver (targeting v3.4). Also, I'm not sure it > >>>> follows the best-practice guidelines (e.g. it hard-codes a few > >>>> work-arounds directly in drivers/pci/probe.c) > >> > >> Indeed, having to change drivers/pci/probe.c doesn't sound like a best > >> practice :) If you can share details of what changes you need, people > >> could probably suggest other ways to do it within the generic PCI > >> framework. > >> > >>>> If I understand correctly, while PCIe is a standard, it is not codified > >>>> as much as USB (XHCI) or SATA (AHCI), which means the register layout > >>>> (and possibly other things) are left up to the integrator? Which means > >>>> there cannot be some kind of "generic" driver that works for a random > >>>> PCIe controller? > >> > >> There is no standardization of registers in MMIO or I/O port space. > >> The size, location, and type of those registers is configurable in a > >> generic way via the BARs, of course. But that tells you nothing about > >> the *functionality* of those MMIO or I/O port registers. > >> > >> For config space, the first 64 bytes (the PCIe r3.0 spec calls it the > >> "PCI 3.0 Compatible Configuration Space Header") are completely > >> standardized. This is where device IDs, BARs, and other generic > >> registers are. > >> > >> PCIe devices can implement up to 4096 bytes of config space. The > >> space after the 64-byte header can contain a list of standardized > >> PCI/PCIe Capabilities, non-standardized device-specific registers, or > >> both. There is a way to include device-specific registers in a > >> "Vendor Defined" Capability -- that way drivers can use generic > >> mechanisms to find registers so they don't have to hard-code register > >> layout assumptions. > >> > >>>> I guess my main question is: do you have pointers on getting started > >>>> writing a PCIe driver good enough for upstream? > >>>> > >>>> Is Documentation/PCI/PCIEBUS-HOWTO.txt still a relevant resource? > >> > >> PCIEBUS-HOWTO.txt is still relevant, but only to drivers for services > >> of PCIe ports, e.g., hotplug, error reporting, etc. It's not relevant > >> to PCIe endpoint drivers. > >> > >>>> Are there good resources to get up to speed on the PCIe terminology? > >>> > >>> I'm also wondering: in many Linux subsystems, there are often > >>> several drivers of different quality; some are obsolescent and > >>> have not been updated in a while, while some are recent and > >>> follow all the latest best-practice guidelines (and the rest > >>> is somewhere in the middle). > >>> > >>> Are there 1 or 2 very good PCIe drivers to take as examples > >>> as good starting points? (Perhaps a simple driver, and a > >>> more complex driver.) > >> > >> I'm not really the best person to ask about this because I deal more > >> with the PCI core than with the drivers that use the core. If I were > >> looking, I might start with drivers/nvme/host/pci.c or > >> drivers/usb/host/xhci-pci.c. > > > > I should have also mentioned Documentation/PCI/pci.txt. That's a > > pretty good place to start. > > Hello Bjorn, > > Thanks for these pointers, I will study them with care. > > Who would review my PCIe driver if I ever submitted one? :-) It all depends on what subsystem it would belong to, what type of device are you writing a driver for? thanks, greg k-h