Date:	Wed, 27 Jan 2016 16:45:22 -0800
From:	Peter Hurley <peter@...leysoftware.com>
To:	Aleksey Makarov <aleksey.makarov@...aro.org>,
	linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
	linux-serial@...r.kernel.org,
	Graeme Gregory <graeme.gregory@...aro.org>,
	Russell King <linux@....linux.org.uk>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	"Rafael J . Wysocki" <rjw@...ysocki.net>,
	Leif Lindholm <leif.lindholm@...aro.org>,
	Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
	Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>, Len Brown <lenb@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/3] ACPI: parse SPCR and enable matching console

On 01/27/2016 05:57 AM, Aleksey Makarov wrote:
> 
> 
> On 01/25/2016 07:32 PM, Peter Hurley wrote:
>> On 01/25/2016 03:45 AM, Aleksey Makarov wrote:
>>> 'ARM Server Base Boot Requiremets' [1] mention SPCR (Serial Port
>>> Console Redirection Table) [2] as a mandatory ACPI table that
>>> specifies the configuration of serial console.
>>>
>>> Parse this table and check if any registered console match the
>>> description.  If it does, enable that console.
>>>
>>> To implement that, introduce a new member int (*acpi_match)(struct
>>> console *, struct acpi_table_spcr *) of struct console.  It allows
>>> drivers to check if they provide a matching console device.
>>
>> Many, many platform proms with all sorts of binary table layout are
>> already supported by the existing console infrastructure. Why is ACPI
>> different, that requires extensive (and messy) changes to console
>> initialization?
> 
> Without this patch, when linux calls register_console(), that function
> checks if any console has been enabled so far. 1) If not, it enables the
> console being registered. 2) If there exists any enabled console, it
> looks at the console_cmdline array. That array holds a list of
> consoles that user wishes to enable. There are two ways to append
> an item to that list: first is to pass "console=..." option in command
> line and second is to call add_preferred_console(char *name, int idx,
> char *options). As it is clear from the signature, the function
> requires the name of the driver (like "ttyS") and the line id. On the
> other hand, the SPCR ACPI table describes console by specifying the
> address of it's registers or PCI Device ID / PCI Vendor ID or PCI Bus
> Number / PCI Device Number. So to use this function we would need to
> have a method to translate this info to the name of terminal and line
> index. I could not figure out any way to do that.

I'm not sure how this answers my question.

Which existing drivers/arch setup have you studied to conclude that
the existing console mechanisms don't work? Have you actually looked
at the in-tree callers of add_preferred_console()?


> In the initial version of the patch after getting the reference to the
> SPCR ACPI table the full tree of ACPI devices was searched to find any
> device with the same address.  When uart_add_one_port() was called
> to register a new serial port, the ACPI companion of this port was
> compared to the found device. If it was the same device, the code
> called add_preferred_console() (the terminal name and line index are
> known in uart_add_one_port()).

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of that.

But I think it was a bad choice to pick SPCR as table format, in the
first place. At least DBG2 has the actual ACPI device identifier :/


> This original approach had two problems: 
> 
>     1) It works with the SPCR tables that describe consoles only by
> the address of the registers. I do not think that consoles that are
> described by PCI info will appear in the near future, but decided to
> implement this in a generic way. I would like to discuss if this
> decision was good.
> 
>     2) Wrong order of initialization.  Many console drivers have already
> been registered by the time uart_add_one_port() adds an item to the
> console_cmdline array.  There is a similar problem with my
> implementation,  but having a dedicated acpi_match() callback I
> believe made it simpler to circumwent.

I don't see how the "wrong order of initialization" and the need for
acpi_match() correlate. What do you mean by "wrong order"? What is the
"right order"?


> That's why I believe we need to add a new funcion pointer to struct
> console. On the other hand, I do not understand which existing
> structure you are referring.
> 
>> How is this going to work with earlycon?
> 
> If an earlycon that matches SPCR is being registered, the code will enable it.

I think you should review how and when an earlycon is specified, initialized
and registered before you conclude that this will magically work.


> While it is harmless. Even so I will check for earlycon in the next version
> of the patch set, thank you.
> 
>> This commit log is missing the reasoning behind adding locks,
>> refactoring into delete_from_console_list(), and retry loops.
> 
> I will add this to the next verion of the series.
> 
> Thank you
> Aleksey Makarov
> 
> 
>>> [1]
>>> http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.den0044a/index.html
>>>
>>> [2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn639131(v=vs.85).aspx
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Aleksey Makarov <aleksey.makarov@...aro.org>
> 
> [ .. ]
> 

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