[PATCH v2 01/19] powerpc/rtas: handle extended delays safely in early boot

Nathan Lynch nathanl at linux.ibm.com
Thu Feb 9 00:14:56 AEDT 2023


Michael Ellerman <mpe at ellerman.id.au> writes:
> Nathan Lynch via B4 Submission Endpoint <devnull+nathanl.linux.ibm.com at kernel.org> writes:
>> From: Nathan Lynch <nathanl at linux.ibm.com>
>>
>> Some code that runs early in boot calls RTAS functions that can return
>> -2 or 990x statuses, which mean the caller should retry. An example is
>> pSeries_cmo_feature_init(), which invokes ibm,get-system-parameter but
>> treats these benign statuses as errors instead of retrying.
>>
>> pSeries_cmo_feature_init() and similar code should be made to retry
>> until they succeed or receive a real error, using the usual pattern:
>>
>> 	do {
>> 		rc = rtas_call(token, etc...);
>> 	} while (rtas_busy_delay(rc));
>>
>> But rtas_busy_delay() will perform a timed sleep on any 990x
>> status. This isn't safe so early in boot, before the CPU scheduler and
>> timer subsystem have initialized.
>>
>> The -2 RTAS status is much more likely to occur during single-threaded
>> boot than 990x in practice, at least on PowerVM. This is because -2
>> usually means that RTAS made progress but exhausted its self-imposed
>> timeslice, while 990x is associated with concurrent requests from the
>> OS causing internal contention. Regardless, according to the language
>> in PAPR, the OS should be prepared to handle either type of status at
>> any time.
>>
>> Add a fallback path to rtas_busy_delay() to handle this as safely as
>> possible, performing a small delay on 990x. Include a counter to
>> detect retry loops that aren't making progress and bail out.
>>
>> This was found by inspection and I'm not aware of any real
>> failures. However, the implementation of rtas_busy_delay() before
>> commit 38f7b7067dae ("powerpc/rtas: rtas_busy_delay() improvements")
>> was not susceptible to this problem, so let's treat this as a
>> regression.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Nathan Lynch <nathanl at linux.ibm.com>
>> Fixes: 38f7b7067dae ("powerpc/rtas: rtas_busy_delay() improvements")
>> ---
>>  arch/powerpc/kernel/rtas.c | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>>  1 file changed, 47 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/rtas.c b/arch/powerpc/kernel/rtas.c
>> index 795225d7f138..ec2df09a70cf 100644
>> --- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/rtas.c
>> +++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/rtas.c
>> @@ -606,6 +606,46 @@ unsigned int rtas_busy_delay_time(int status)
>>  	return ms;
>>  }
>>  
>> +/*
>> + * Early boot fallback for rtas_busy_delay().
>> + */
>> +static bool __init rtas_busy_delay_early(int status)
>> +{
>> +	static size_t successive_ext_delays __initdata;
>> +	bool ret;
>
> I think the logic would be easier to read if this was called "wait", but
> maybe that's just me.

Maybe "retry"? That communicates what the function is telling callers to do.

>
>> +	switch (status) {
>> +	case RTAS_EXTENDED_DELAY_MIN...RTAS_EXTENDED_DELAY_MAX:
>> +		/*
>> +		 * In the unlikely case that we receive an extended
>> +		 * delay status in early boot, the OS is probably not
>> +		 * the cause, and there's nothing we can do to clear
>> +		 * the condition. Best we can do is delay for a bit
>> +		 * and hope it's transient. Lie to the caller if it
>> +		 * seems like we're stuck in a retry loop.
>> +		 */
>> +		mdelay(1);
>> +		ret = true;
>> +		successive_ext_delays += 1;
>> +		if (successive_ext_delays > 1000) {
>> +			pr_err("too many extended delays, giving up\n");
>> +			dump_stack();
>> +			ret = false;
>
> Shouldn't we zero successive_ext_delays here?
>
> Otherwise a subsequent (possibly different) RTAS call will immediately
> fail out here if it gets a single extended delay from RTAS, won't it?

Yes, will fix. Thanks.

>
>> +		}
>> +		break;
>> +	case RTAS_BUSY:
>> +		ret = true;
>> +		successive_ext_delays = 0;
>> +		break;
>> +	default:
>> +		ret = false;
>> +		successive_ext_delays = 0;
>> +		break;
>> +	}
>> +
>> +	return ret;
>> +}
>> +
>>  /**
>>   * rtas_busy_delay() - helper for RTAS busy and extended delay statuses
>>   *
>> @@ -624,11 +664,17 @@ unsigned int rtas_busy_delay_time(int status)
>>   * * false - @status is not @RTAS_BUSY nor an extended delay hint. The
>>   *           caller is responsible for handling @status.
>>   */
>> -bool rtas_busy_delay(int status)
>> +bool __ref rtas_busy_delay(int status)
>
> Can you explain the __ref in the change log.

Yes, will add that.


>>  {
>>  	unsigned int ms;
>>  	bool ret;
>>  
>> +	/*
>> +	 * Can't do timed sleeps before timekeeping is up.
>> +	 */
>> +	if (system_state < SYSTEM_SCHEDULING)
>> +		return rtas_busy_delay_early(status);
>> +
>>  	switch (status) {
>>  	case RTAS_EXTENDED_DELAY_MIN...RTAS_EXTENDED_DELAY_MAX:
>>  		ret = true;
>>
>
> cheers


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