Re: [PATCH v1] ARM: clocksource: make ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER selectable

[Grygorii Strashko]

On 04/26/2016 07:02 PM, Liviu Dudau wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 06:28:52PM +0300, Grygorii Strashko wrote:
> 
> Hi Grygorii,
> 
> First time I'm seeing this patch, so I have a few questions, mostly
> related to the commit message:

Hm. You are in cc for RFC.
Sry, forgot to add link [1].

> 
>> This patch intended to fix following cases:
>> - SoC-A has ARM GT, defines DT node for ARM GT and selects
>> ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER statically in Kconfig file. SoC-B has ARM GT and
>> defines DT node for ARM GT, but do not selects ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER
>> statically in Kconfig file. In case of multiplatform build ARM GT will
>> be implicitly enabled for SoC-B.
> 
> Well, SoC-B has the GT *and* the DT node, so what is the problem with
> enabling it for SoC-B? If there are reasons not to use the Global Timer
> on SoC-B, surely a better option would be to mark it in DT with status = "disabled";

This was rejected [2]. DT describes HW and if it is functional the status = "disabled"
is not good choice.
ARM GT can't be used as clocksource/sched_clock/clockevent when CPUFreq or
CPUIdle are enabled :(, and this is Linux specific functionality and
not HW description. 

> 
>>
>> - There is no way to disable ARM GT without modifying Kconfig file,
>> once ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER is selected statically in Kconfig file.
> 
> What about disabling the DT node?
> 
> Not sure I properly understand the problem you are trying to solve here.

I'd like to have way to enable/disable ARM GT without modifying Kernel sources
(Kconfig specifically) which is now impossible.

> 
>>
>> Hence, fix above case by defining both HAVE_ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER and
>> ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER as recommended by 'Adding common features and make
>> the usage configurable' section in kconfig-language.txt. All places in
>> ARM folder where ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER was used now replaced on
>> HAVE_ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER.
> 
> I'm OK with the way you have changed ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER from a sticky config
> option to a selectable one, but I would like more details on the problem
> this was causing you.
> 

The same HW (board) could be used with PM features enabled (power saving)
and disabled (-RT). Without this change it will require to have
and maintain two branches, but with it - just separate defconfig.

[1] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-rockchip/2016-February/007159.html
[2] http://www.spinics.net/lists/devicetree/msg102918.html

> 
>>
>> Cc: Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Russell King <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Wei Xu <xuwei5@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Shawn Guo <shawnguo@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Sascha Hauer <kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Srinivas Kandagatla <srinivas.kandagatla@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin@xxxxxx>
>> Cc: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Liviu Dudau <liviu.dudau@xxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Sudeep Holla <sudeep.holla@xxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Jun Nie <jun.nie@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Michal Simek <michal.simek@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Jesper Nilsson <jesper.nilsson@xxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Lars Persson <lars.persson@xxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Mike Looijmans <mike.looijmans@xxxxxxxx>
>> Acked-by: SÃren Brinkmann <soren.brinkmann@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Acked-by: Moritz Fischer <moritz.fischer@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Signed-off-by: Grygorii Strashko <grygorii.strashko@xxxxxx>
>> ---
>> Changes is v1:
>> - updated mach-artpec
>> - rebased on top of tip: timers/core
>>    commit: 86d3473 time: Introduce do_sys_settimeofday64()
>>
>>   arch/arm/mach-artpec/Kconfig   | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-bcm/Kconfig      | 4 ++--
>>   arch/arm/mach-hisi/Kconfig     | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-imx/Kconfig      | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-rockchip/Kconfig | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-sti/Kconfig      | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-uniphier/Kconfig | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-vexpress/Kconfig | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-zx/Kconfig       | 2 +-
>>   arch/arm/mach-zynq/Kconfig     | 2 +-
>>   drivers/clocksource/Kconfig    | 7 ++++++-
>>   11 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/arm/mach-artpec/Kconfig b/arch/arm/mach-artpec/Kconfig
>> index 6cbe5a2..6cbca77 100644
>> --- a/arch/arm/mach-artpec/Kconfig
>> +++ b/arch/arm/mach-artpec/Kconfig
>> @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ config MACH_ARTPEC6
>>   	depends on ARCH_MULTI_V7
>>   	select ARM_AMBA
>>   	select ARM_GIC
>> -	select ARM_GLOBAL_TIMER

[...]

-- 
regards,
-grygorii