netdev - Q: Usage of pci_enable_atomic_ops_to

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

[<prev] [next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <fbe34de16f5c0bf25a16f9819a57fdd81e5bb08c.camel@linux.ibm.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2025 19:18:36 +0200
From: Gerd Bayer <gbayer@...ux.ibm.com>
To: Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>, Jay Cornwall
 <Jay.Cornwall@....com>,
        Felix Kuehling <Felix.Kuehling@....com>
Cc: Niklas Schnelle <schnelle@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Alexander Schmidt
	 <alexs@...ux.ibm.com>,
        netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-rdma
	 <linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-pci <linux-pci@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Q: Usage of pci_enable_atomic_ops_to_root()

Hi all,

I stumbled over mlx5's usage of pci_enable_atomic_ops_to_root() at

https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.18-rc2/source/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/main.c#L937

and was wondering if its repeated calls with the 3 available sizes gave
it the intended result.

I assume the intent was to enable requesting AtomicOps only if all
three sizes 32/64/128-bit were supported at the root-complex. However,
pci_enable_atomic_ops_to_root() would enable the request at the PCIe
level, even if just 32-bit sized Ops was supported at the root-complex.

So I checked other users in the kernel and found an inconclusive
picture:
The AMD GPU that this was originally introduced for [0] checks for a
combination of two sizes, while a few infiniband/ethernet and the vfio-
pci driver do variations of sequential checks (potentially enabling
requests that they don't want to)

Now the PCIe Spec Rev. 7.0 has also a mixed bag. Section 6.15.3.1
mandates for Root Ports:

> If a Root Port implements any AtomicOp Completer capability for host
> memory access, it must implement all 32-bit and 64-bit AtomicOp
> Completer capabilities. Implementing 128-bit CAS Completer capability
> is optional.

While this is specific, marking the CAS Op Completions in the 128-bit
variant optional, the Capability bits just specify 128-bit AtomicOps
(all AtomicOps: FetchAdd, Swap, CAS). Strictly interpreted, this would
require root port implementors to announce all-or-nothing of 32/64/128-
bit AtomicOps - which kind of makes the size-granularity of the
capability bits useless - and leave the endpoint device (and its
driver) attempting to use 128-bit CAS in the dark...

[0]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/1515113100-4718-1-git-send-email-Felix.Kuehling@amd.com/

Can anybody shed some light on this?
Thank you,
Gerd