Re: [RFC] /dev/ioasid uAPI proposal

[Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@nvidia.com>]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2021 at 01:41:28PM -0600, Alex Williamson wrote:

> > Compatibility is important, but when I look in the kernel code I see
> > very few places that call wbinvd(). Basically all DRM for something
> > relavent to qemu.
> > 
> > That tells me that the vast majority of PCI devices do not generate
> > no-snoop traffic.
> 
> Unfortunately, even just looking at devices across a couple laptops
> most devices do support and have NoSnoop+ set by default.  

Yes, mine too, but that doesn't mean the device is issuing nosnoop
transactions, it just means the OS is allowing it to do so if it wants.

As I said, without driver support the feature cannot be used, and
there is no driver support in Linux outside DRM, unless it is
hidden.. Certainly I've never run into it..

Even mlx5 is setting the nosnoop bit, but I have a fairly high
confidence that we don't set the TLP bit for anything Linux does.

> It's not safe for QEMU to make an assumption that only GPUs will
> actually make use of it.

Not 100% safe, but if you know you are running Linux OS in the VM you
can look at the drivers the devices need and make a determination.

> Yes, QEMU can reject a hot-unplug event, but then QEMU retains the
> privilege that the device grants it.  Releasing the device and
> retaining the privileged gained by it seems wrong.  Thanks,

It is not completely ideal, but it is such a simplification, and I
can't really see a drawback..

Jason