Date:	Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:36:44 +0800
From:	Huang Ying <ying.huang@...el.com>
To:	Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>
Cc:	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...k.pl>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-pm@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [BUGFIX] PM: Fix active child counting when disabled and
 forbidden

On Thu, 2012-11-08 at 12:07 -0500, Alan Stern wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Nov 2012, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> 
> > > > > is it a good idea to allow to set device state to SUSPENDED if the device
> > > > > is disabled?
> > > > 
> > > > No, it is not.  The status should always be ACTIVE as long as usage_count > 0.
> 
> That isn't strictly true, because pm_runtime_get_noresume violates this
> rule.  What the PM core actually does is prevent a transition from the
> ACTIVE state to the SUSPENDING/SUSPENDED state if usage_count > 0,
> _provided_ runtime PM is enabled.  There's no such restriction when it
> is disabled.

Usage count may be not a issue for the end user.  But "on" in "control"
sysfs file + SUSPENDED can be confusing for the end user.  Maybe we need
to check dev->power.runtime_auto in pm_runtime_set_suspended().

> BTW, do we need to think about what happens in the case where the
> device _does_ have a driver and for some reason the driver has disabled
> the device for runtime PM?  I would just as soon ignore the issue.
> 
> > > > However, in some cases we actually would like to change the status to
> > > > SUSPENDED when usage_count becomes equal to 0, because that means we can
> > > > suspend (I mean really suspend) the parents of the devices in question
> > > > (and we want to notify the parents in those cases).
> > > 
> > > So do you think Alan Stern's suggestion about forbidden and disabled is
> > > the right way to go?
> > 
> > I'm not really sure about that.
> > 
> > My original idea was that the runtime PM status and usage counter would
> > only matter when runtime PM of a device was enabled.  That leads to
> > problems, though, when we enable runtime PM of a device whose usage
> > counter is greater from zero and status is SUSPENDED.
> 
> That doesn't seem to be a problem.  It can arise without disabling
> runtime PM at all -- just call pm_runtime_get_noresume.

I think pm_runtime_get_noresume can not fix the issue.
pm_runtiem_set_active() should be invoked before pm_runtime_enable() if
necessary.  That is, the invoker should be responsible for the
consistence between usage_count and SUSPENDED/ACTIVE status.  And the
API may be a little low level and error-prone to the invoker (mainly bus
code).

Best Regards,
Huang Ying

> >  Also when the
> > device's status is ACTIVE, but its parent's child count is 0.
> 
> __pm_runtime_set_status prevents this situation from arising.  When the 
> device's status is set to ACTIVE, the parent's child count is 
> incremented.  So this isn't a problem either.
> 
> > It's not very easy to fix this at the core level, though, because we
> > depend on the current behavior in some places.  I'm thinking that
> > perhaps pm_runtime_enable() should just WARN() if things are obviously
> > inconsistent (although there still may be problems, for example, if the
> > parent's child count is 2 when we enable runtime PM for its child, but that
> > child is the only one it actually has).
> 
> I think we should continue the original strategy of ignoring the status
> and usage counter when runtime PM is disabled.  This is definitely the
> easiest and most straightforward approach.  Fixing the problem at hand
> (VGA controllers) by changing the PCI subsystem seems like the simplest
> solution.
> 
> Your revised patch does do the job, except for a few problems.  
> Namely, while local_pci_probe() and pci_device_remove() are running,
> the device _does_ have a driver.  This means that local_pci_probe()
> should not call pm_runtime_get_sync(), for example.  Doing so would
> invoke the driver's runtime_resume routine before calling the driver's
> probe routine!
> 
> The USB subsystem solves this problem by carefully keeping track of the 
> state of the device-driver binding:
> 
> 	Originally the device is UNBOUND.
> 
> 	At the start of the subsystem's probe routine, the state
> 	changes to BINDING.
> 
> 	If the probe succeeds then it changes to BOUND; otherwise
> 	it goes back to UNBOUND.
> 
> 	At the start of the subsystem's remove routine, the state
> 	changes to UNBINDING.  At the end it goes to UNBOUND.
> 
> When the state is anything other than BOUND, the subsystem's runtime PM 
> routines act as though there is no driver.  This works because the 
> subsystem makes sure that the device is ACTIVE with a nonzero usage 
> count before calling the driver's probe or remove routine, so no 
> runtime PM callbacks can occur at these awkward times.
> 
> If PCI adopted this strategy then your new patch would work okay.  I 
> think -- I haven't checked it thoroughly.
> 
> Alan Stern
> 


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