Re: [PATCH v3 01/10] PCI: Avoid saving error values for config space

From: Farhan Ali

Date: Tue Sep 16 2025 - 16:01:10 EST



On 9/16/2025 11:09 AM, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
On Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 11:32:58AM -0700, Farhan Ali wrote:
The current reset process saves the device's config space state before
reset and restores it afterward. However, when a device is in an error
state before reset, config space reads may return error values instead of
valid data. This results in saving corrupted values that get written back
to the device during state restoration.

Avoid saving the state of the config space when the device is in error.
While restoring we only restorei the state that can be restored through
kernel data such as BARs or doesn't depend on the saved state.

Signed-off-by: Farhan Ali <alifm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/pci/pci.c | 29 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
drivers/pci/pcie/aer.c | 5 +++++
drivers/pci/pcie/dpc.c | 5 +++++
drivers/pci/pcie/ptm.c | 5 +++++
drivers/pci/tph.c | 5 +++++
drivers/pci/vc.c | 5 +++++
6 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/pci/pci.c b/drivers/pci/pci.c
index b0f4d98036cd..4b67d22faf0a 100644
--- a/drivers/pci/pci.c
+++ b/drivers/pci/pci.c
@@ -1720,6 +1720,11 @@ static void pci_restore_pcie_state(struct pci_dev *dev)
struct pci_cap_saved_state *save_state;
u16 *cap;
+ if (!dev->state_saved) {
+ pci_warn(dev, "Not restoring pcie state, no saved state");
+ return;
Hi Bjorn

Thanks for taking a look.

Seems like a lot of messages. If we want to warn about this, why
don't we do it once in pci_restore_state()?

I thought providing messages about which state is not restored would be better and meaningful as we try to restore some of the state. But if the preference is to just have a single warn message in pci_restore_state then I can update it. (would also like to hear if Alex has any objections to that)


I guess you're making some judgment about what things can be restored
even when !dev->state_saved. That seems kind of hard to maintain in
the future as other capabilities are added.

Also seems sort of questionable if we restore partial state and keep
using the device as if all is well. Won't the device be in some kind
of inconsistent, unpredictable state then?

Bjorn

I tried to avoid restoring state that explicitly needed to save the state. For some of the other capabilities, that didn't explicitly store the state, I tried to keep the same behavior. This is based on the discussion with Alex (https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250826094845.517e0fa7.alex.williamson@xxxxxxxxxx/). Also AFAIU currently the dev->state_saved is set to true as long as we save the first 64 bytes of config space (pci_save_state), so we could for example fail to save the PCIe state, but while restoring can continue to restore other capabilities like pasid.

At the very least I would like to avoid corrupting the BAR registers and restore msix (arch_restore_msi_irqs) to get devices into a functional state after a reset. I am open to suggestions on how we can do this.

Would also like to get your feedback on patch 3 and the approach there of having a new flag in struct pci_slot.

Thanks
Farhan