Re: [PATCH 5/5] PCI: Support ASpeed VGA cards behind a misbehaving bridge

[Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@gmail.com>]

Hi, Bjorn,

On Wed, May 19, 2021 at 3:35 AM Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 03:13:43PM +0800, Huacai Chen wrote:
> > On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 2:28 AM Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@kernel.org> wrote:
> > > On Mon, May 17, 2021 at 08:53:43PM +0800, Huacai Chen wrote:
> > > > On Sat, May 15, 2021 at 5:09 PM Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 11:10 PM Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@kernel.org> wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 04:00:25PM +0800, Huacai Chen wrote:
> > > > > > > According to PCI-to-PCI bridge spec, bit 3 of Bridge Control Register is
> > > > > > > VGA Enable bit which modifies the response to VGA compatible addresses.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The bridge spec is pretty old, and most of the content has been
> > > > > > incorporated into the PCIe spec.  I think you can cite "PCIe r5.0, sec
> > > > > > 7.5.1.3.13" here instead.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > If the VGA Enable bit is set, the bridge will decode and forward the
> > > > > > > following accesses on the primary interface to the secondary interface.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > *Which* following accesses?  The structure of English requires that if
> > > > > > you say "the following accesses," you must continue by *listing* the
> > > > > > accesses.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > The ASpeed AST2500 hardward does not set the VGA Enable bit on its
> > > > > > > bridge control register, which causes vgaarb subsystem don't think the
> > > > > > > VGA card behind the bridge as a valid boot vga device.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > s/hardward/bridge/
> > > > > > s/vga/VGA/ (also in code comments and dmesg strings below)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > From the code, it looks like AST2500 ([1a03:2000]) is a VGA device,
> > > > > > since it apparently has a VGA class code.  But here you say the
> > > > > > AST2500 has a Bridge Control register, which suggests that it's a
> > > > > > bridge.  If AST2500 is some sort of combination that includes both a
> > > > > > bridge and a VGA device, please outline that topology.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > But the hardware defect is that some bridges forward VGA accesses even
> > > > > > though their VGA Enable bit is not set?  The quirk should be attached
> > > > > > to broken *bridges*, not to VGA devices.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > If a bridge forwards VGA accesses regardless of how its VGA Enable bit
> > > > > > is set, that means VGA arbitration (in vgaarb.c) cannot work
> > > > > > correctly, so merely setting the default VGA device once in a quirk is
> > > > > > not sufficient.  You would have to somehow disable any future attempts
> > > > > > to use other VGA devices.  Only the VGA device below this defective
> > > > > > bridge is usable.  Any other VGA devices in the system would be
> > > > > > useless.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > So we provide a quirk to fix Xorg auto-detection.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > See similar bug:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-pci/patch/20170619023528.11532-1-dja@axtens.net/
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This patch was never merged.  If we merged a revised version, please
> > > > > > cite the SHA1 instead.
> > > > >
> > > > > This patch has never merged, and I found that it is unnecessary after
> > > > > commit a37c0f48950b56f6ef2ee637 ("vgaarb: Select a default VGA device
> > > > > even if there's no legacy VGA"). Maybe this ASpeed patch is also
> > > > > unnecessary. If it is still needed, I'll investigate the root cause.
> > > >
> > > > I found that vga_arb_device_init() and pcibios_init() are both wrapped
> > > > by subsys_initcall(), which means their sequence is unpredictable. And
> > > > unfortunately, in our platform vga_arb_device_init() is called before
> > > > pcibios_init(), which makes vga_arb_device_init() fail to set a
> > > > default vga device. This is the root cause why we thought that we
> > > > still need a quirk for AST2500.
> > >
> > > Does this mean there is no hardware defect here?  The VGA Enable bit
> > > works correctly?
> > >
> > No, VGA Enable bit still doesn't set, but with commit
> > a37c0f48950b56f6ef2ee637 ("vgaarb: Select a default VGA device even if
> > there's no legacy VGA") we no longer depend on VGA Enable.
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong:
>
>   - On the AST2500 bridge [1a03:1150], the VGA Enable bit is
>     read-only 0.
>
>   - The AST2500 bridge never forwards VGA accesses ([mem
>     0xa0000-0xbffff], [io 0x3b0-0x3bb], [io 0x3c0-0x3df]) to its
>     secondary bus.
>
> The VGA Enable bit is optional, and if both the above are true, the
> bridge is working correctly per spec, and the quirk below is not the
> right solution, and whatever solution we come up with should not
> claim that the bridge is misbehaving.
Yes, you are right, the bridge is working correctly, which is similar
to HiSilicon D05.


>
> > > > I think the best solution is make vga_arb_device_init() be wrapped by
> > > > subsys_initcall_sync(), do you think so?
> > >
> > > Hmm.  Unfortunately the semantics of subsys_initcall_sync() are not
> > > documented, so I'm not sure exactly *why* such a change would work and
> > > whether we could rely on it to continue working.
> > >
> > > pcibios_init() isn't very consistent across arches.  On some,
> > > including alpha, microblaze, some MIPS platforms, powerpc, and sh, it
> > > enumerates PCI devices.  On others (ia64, parisc, sparc, x86), it does
> > > basically nothing.  That makes life a little difficult.
> >
> > subsys_initcall_sync() is ensured after all subsys_initcall()
> > functions, so at least it can solve the problem on platforms which use
> > pcibios_init() to enumerate PCI devices (x86 and other ACPI-based
> > platforms are also OK, because they use acpi_init()
> > -->acpi_scan_init() -->pci_acpi_scan_root() to enumerate devices).
>
> More details in my response to suijingfeng:
> https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210518193100.GA148462@bjorn-Precision-5520
>
> I'd rather not fiddle with the initcall ordering.  That mechanism is
> fragile and I'd prefer something more robust.
>
> I'm wondering whether it's practical to do something in the normal PCI
> enumeration path, e.g., in pci_init_capabilities().  Maybe we can
> detect the default VGA device as we enumerate it.  Then we wouldn't
> have this weird process of "find all PCI devices first, then scan for
> the default VGA device, and oh, by the way, also check for VGA devices
> hot-added later."
If we don't want to rely on initcall order, and want to solve the
hot-added case, then can we add vga_arb_select_default_device() in
pci_notify() when (action == BUS_NOTIFY_ADD_DEVICE &&
!vga_default_device())?

Huacai
>
> Bjorn