Message-ID: <e23c1ab4-c501-4449-bf8b-62e209e56895@opensynergy.com>
Date:   Tue, 24 Oct 2023 09:17:45 +0900
From:   Anton Yakovlev <anton.yakovlev@...nsynergy.com>
To:     Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de>
Cc:     Matias Ezequiel Vara Larsen <mvaralar@...hat.com>, mst@...hat.com,
        perex@...ex.cz, tiwai@...e.com,
        virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org,
        alsa-devel@...a-project.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        pbonzini@...hat.com, stefanha@...hat.com, sgarzare@...hat.com,
        manos.pitsidianakis@...aro.org, mripard@...hat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] ALSA: virtio: use copy and fill_silence callbacks

Hi Takashi,

On 19.10.2023 16:48, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:20:19 +0200,
> Anton Yakovlev wrote:
>>
>> Hi Takashi,
>>
>> On 19.10.2023 03:07, Takashi Iwai wrote:
>>> On Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:48:23 +0200,
>>> Matias Ezequiel Vara Larsen wrote:
>>>>
>>>> This commit replaces the mmap mechanism with the copy() and
>>>> fill_silence() callbacks for both capturing and playback for the
>>>> virtio-sound driver. This change is required to prevent the updating of
>>>> the content of a buffer that is already in the available ring.
>>>>
>>>> The current mechanism splits a dma buffer into descriptors that are
>>>> exposed to the device. This dma buffer is shared with the user
>>>> application. When the device consumes a buffer, the driver moves the
>>>> request from the used ring to available ring.
>>>>
>>>> The driver exposes the buffer to the device without knowing if the
>>>> content has been updated from the user. The section 2.8.21.1 of the
>>>> virtio spec states that: "The device MAY access the descriptor chains
>>>> the driver created and the memory they refer to immediately". If the
>>>> device picks up buffers from the available ring just after it is
>>>> notified, it happens that the content may be old.
>>>>
>>>> By providing the copy() callback, the driver first updates the content
>>>> of the buffer, and then, exposes the buffer to the device by enqueuing
>>>> it in the available ring. Thus, device always picks up a buffer that is
>>>> updated. During copy(), the number of requests enqueued depends on the
>>>> "pos" and "bytes" arguments. The length of each request is period_size
>>>> bytes.
>>>>
>>>> For capturing, the driver starts by exposing all the available buffers
>>>> to device. After device updates the content of a buffer, it enqueues it
>>>> in the used ring. It is only after the copy() for capturing is issued
>>>> that the driver re-enqueues the buffer in the available ring.
>>>>
>>>> Co-developed-by: Anton Yakovlev <anton.yakovlev@...nsynergy.com>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Matias Ezequiel Vara Larsen <mvaralar@...hat.com>
>>>> ---
>>>> Changelog:
>>>> v1 -> v2:
>>>>    * Use snd_pcm_set_managed_buffer_all()for buffer allocation/freeing.
>>>>    * Make virtsnd_pcm_msg_send() generic by specifying the offset and size
>>>>      for the modified part of the buffer; this way no assumptions need to
>>>>      be made.
>>>>    * Disable SNDRV_PCM_INFO_NO_REWINDS since now only sequential
>>>>      reading/writing of frames is supported.
>>>>    * Correct comment at virtsnd_pcm_msg_send().
>>>>    * v1 patch at:
>>>>      https://ddec1-0-en-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2flore.kernel.org%2flkml%2f20231016151000.GE119987%40fedora%2ft%2f&umid=323acbff-2d10-45a8-bbe1-78fc8583abec&auth=53c7c7de28b92dfd96e93d9dd61a23e634d2fbec-6526c5e588ae6e2c247d0c967e0504e4fc7f307a
>>>>
>>>>    sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.c     |  7 ++-
>>>>    sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.h     |  9 ++--
>>>>    sound/virtio/virtio_pcm_msg.c | 93 ++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
>>>>    sound/virtio/virtio_pcm_ops.c | 81 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
>>>>    4 files changed, 137 insertions(+), 53 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> Most of the code changes look good, but I wonder:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.c b/sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.c
>>>> index c10d91fff2fb..66d67eef1bcc 100644
>>>> --- a/sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.c
>>>> +++ b/sound/virtio/virtio_pcm.c
>>>> @@ -104,12 +104,11 @@ static int virtsnd_pcm_build_hw(struct virtio_pcm_substream *vss,
>>>>    	 * only message-based transport.
>>>>    	 */
>>>>    	vss->hw.info =
>>>> -		SNDRV_PCM_INFO_MMAP |
>>>> -		SNDRV_PCM_INFO_MMAP_VALID |
>>>
>>> Do we need the removal of those MMAP features inevitably?
>>> Usually mmap can still work even if the driver implements the copy
>>> ops.  Those aren't always mutual exclusive.
>>
>> The driver uses a message queue to communicate with the device. Thus,
>> the audio buffer is sliced into several I/O requests (= number of
>> periods) of the same size (= period size).
>>
>> Before this, all such requests were enqueued when the substream started,
>> and immediately re-enqueued once the request is completed. This approach
>> made it possible to add mmap support. But for mmap there are no explicit
>> notifications from the application how many frames were written or read.
>> Thus, it was assumed that the virtual device should read/write frames to
>> requests based on timings. And there are some problems here:
>>
>>    1. This was found to violate the virtio specification: if a request is
>>       already in the queue, the device can safely read/write there at any
>>       time.
>>    2. It looks like this breaks the use case with swiotlb. Personally I'm
>>       not sure how the application handles DMA ownership in the case of
>>       mmaped buffer.
>>
>> To correctly implement mmap support, instead of transferring data via a
>> message queue, the driver and device must have a shared memory region.
>> We can add mmap in the future when we expand the functionality of the
>> device to support such shared memory.
> 
> Ah, then this implementation might be an overkill.  You're still using
> the (intermediate) vmalloc buffer allocated via PCM managed mode, and
> the actual data is copied from/to there.  So it doesn't conflict with
> the mmap operation at all.
> 
> I guess that the problem you're trying to solve (the immediate data
> transfer to the queue) can be implemented rather via PCM ack callback
> instead.  ALSA PCM core notifies the possible data transfer via PCM
> ack callback right after each change of appl_ptr or hw_ptr, including
> each read/write op or mmap commit.  Then the driver can check the
> change of appl_ptr (or hw_ptr for capture), fetch the newly available
> data, and queue it immediately.
> 
> Usually together with the use of ack callback, the driver sets
> SNDRV_PCM_INFO_SYNC_APPLPTR flag.  This prevents the mmap of the PCM
> control record (not the audio data) and enforces the use of
> SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_SYNC_PTR ioctl instead (so that the driver always gets
> the ack callback).

Thanks for pointing out this possibility!

I'm wondering if TinyALSA works correctly with this flag.


Best regards,


> 
> 
> thanks,
> 
> Takashi
> 
> 
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> thanks,
>>>
>>> Takashi
>>
>> -- 
>> Anton Yakovlev
>> Senior Software Engineer
>>
>> OpenSynergy GmbH
>> Rotherstr. 20, 10245 Berlin

-- 
Anton Yakovlev
Senior Software Engineer

OpenSynergy GmbH
Rotherstr. 20, 10245 Berlin

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