Re: [PATCH] drm/i915: kicking rings considered harmful

[Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 06:31:59PM +0100, Chris Wilson wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:46:14 -0700, Ben Widawsky <ben@bwidawsk.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:03:22 +0200
> > Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 10:22:01PM -0700, Ben Widawsky wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:59:50 +0200
> > > > Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch> wrote:
> > > > > diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_irq.c
> > > > > b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_irq.c index da5d607..09c11e4 100644
> > > > > --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_irq.c
> > > > > +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_irq.c
> > > > > @@ -1694,7 +1694,7 @@ void i915_hangcheck_elapsed(unsigned long data)
> > > > >  		if (dev_priv->hangcheck_count++ > 1) {
> > > > >  			DRM_ERROR("Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU
> > > > > hung\n"); 
> > > > > -			if (!IS_GEN2(dev)) {
> > > > > +			if (!IS_GEN2(dev) && i915_try_reset) {
> > > > >  				/* Is the chip hanging on a
> > > > > WAIT_FOR_EVENT?
> > > > >  				 * If so we can simply poke the
> > > > > RB_WAIT bit
> > > > >  				 * and break the hang. This should
> > > > > work on
> > > > 
> > > > I think you should also be able to accomplish the same thing
> > > > with enable_hangcheck param. I had the same problem with the
> > > > debugger :)
> > > 
> > > I agree. Iirc you have some patches floating in that area to make the
> > > hangcheck a bit more robust. Can you maybe add this to that series and
> > > (re-)submit?
> > > 
> > > Cheers, Daniel
> > 
> > While 9/10 times daniel > ben, I'm playing my 10% card here and
> > suggesting that mixing the reset variable and ring kick is not the right
> > way to go about this.
> 
> One purpose of the i915.reset parameter is to disable any automatic
> attempts to recover from a hang condition so that the error state is not
> misleading. So preventing the kick ring does help in that regard.
> 
> A second purpose is to prevent i915_reset() from causing havoc and hanging
> the machine. Daniel is implying that kicking the rings is instrumental in
> making matters worse. Again using i915.reset to prevent kicking the rings
> fits in with that purpose.
> 
> Since I regard kicking rings as a form of reset, I don't see it as a
> conflation of terms and so a valid use of i915.reset.

Couldn't have said it any better. The bad effects of kicking stuck rings
is mostly that when we have a sync problem there's a decent chance
somebody has written garbage into our batchbuffers. Continously trying to
execute said garbage is just tempting faith in the gpu's error resilience.
-Daniel
-- 
Daniel Vetter
Mail: daniel@ffwll.ch
Mobile: +41 (0)79 365 57 48