[PATCH v2 0/2] drivercore: deferral race condition fix

[Peter Ujfalusi]

Hi,

Changes since v1:
- The deferral race detection and handling has been moved to
  driver_deferred_probe_trigger() and driver_deferred_probe_add() functions with
  comment section.
- driver_deferred_probe_add/del function needed to be moved. Both of them placed
  after driver_deferred_probe_trigger() so they remain together.
- I have not added the Acked-by from Mark and Grant since the patch itself
  changed from v1, but the functionality remained.

Explanantion of the issue (from patch 2):
When the kernel is built with CONFIG_PREEMPT it is possible to reach a state
when all modules loaded but some driver still stuck in the deferred list
and there is a need for external event to kick the deferred queue to probe
these drivers.

The issue has been observed on embedded systems with CONFIG_PREEMPT enabled,
audio support built as modules and using nfsroot for root filesystem.

The following log fragment shows such sequence when all audio modules
were loaded but the sound card is not present since the machine driver has
failed to probe due to missing dependency during it's probe.
The board is am335x-evmsk (McASP<->tlv320aic3106 codec) with davinci-evm
machine driver:

...
[   12.615118] davinci-mcasp 4803c000.mcasp: davinci_mcasp_probe: ENTER
[   12.719969] davinci_evm sound.3: davinci_evm_probe: ENTER
[   12.725753] davinci_evm sound.3: davinci_evm_probe: snd_soc_register_card
[   12.753846] davinci-mcasp 4803c000.mcasp: davinci_mcasp_probe: snd_soc_register_component
[   12.922051] davinci-mcasp 4803c000.mcasp: davinci_mcasp_probe: snd_soc_register_component DONE
[   12.950839] davinci_evm sound.3: ASoC: platform (null) not registered
[   12.957898] davinci_evm sound.3: davinci_evm_probe: snd_soc_register_card DONE (-517)
[   13.099026] davinci-mcasp 4803c000.mcasp: Kicking the deferred list
[   13.177838] davinci-mcasp 4803c000.mcasp: really_probe: probe_count = 2
[   13.194130] davinci_evm sound.3: snd_soc_register_card failed (-517)
[   13.346755] davinci_mcasp_driver_init: LEAVE
[   13.377446] platform sound.3: Driver davinci_evm requests probe deferral
[   13.592527] platform sound.3: really_probe: probe_count = 0

In the log the machine driver enters it's probe at 12.719969 (this point it
has been removed from the deferred lists). McASP driver already executing
it's probing (since 12.615118).
The machine driver tries to construct the sound card (12.950839) but did
not found one of the components so it fails. After this McASP driver
registers all the ASoC components (the machine driver still in it's probe
function after it failed to construct the card) and the deferred work is
prepared at 13.099026 (note that this time the machine driver is not in the
lists so it is not going to be handled when the work is executing).
Lastly the machine driver exit from it's probe and the core places it to
the deferred list but there will be no other driver going to load and the
deferred queue is not going to be kicked again - till we have external event
like connecting USB stick, etc.

The proposed solution is to try the deferred queue once more when the last
driver is asking for deferring and we had drivers loaded while this last
driver was probing.

This way we can avoid drivers stuck in the deferred queue.

Regards,
Peter
---
Peter Ujfalusi (2):
  drivercore: dd: Move driver_deferred_probe_add/del function down in
    the code
  drivercore: deferral race condition fix

 drivers/base/dd.c | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
 1 file changed, 48 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

-- 
1.9.1

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/