Re: [PATCH net-next v3] net: phy: micrel: add phy-mode support for the KSZ9031 PHY

[Philippe Schenker]

On Wed, 2020-05-27 at 21:11 +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> Hi Oleksij,
> 
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 11:26 AM Oleksij Rempel <
> o.rempel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 10:45:35AM +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 6:16 PM Philippe Schenker
> > > <philippe.schenker@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 2020-04-28 at 17:47 +0200, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> > > > > On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 05:28:30PM +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > This triggers on Renesas Salvator-X(S):
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >     Micrel KSZ9031 Gigabit PHY e6800000.ethernet-
> > > > > > ffffffff:00:
> > > > > > *-skew-ps values should be used only with phy-mode = "rgmii"
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > which uses:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >         phy-mode = "rgmii-txid";
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > and:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >         rxc-skew-ps = <1500>;
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > If I understand
> > > > > > Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet-
> > > > > > controller.yaml
> > > > > > correctly:
> > > > > 
> > > > > Checking for skews which might contradict the PHY-mode is new.
> > > > > I think
> > > > > this is the first PHY driver to do it. So i'm not too
> > > > > surprised it has
> > > > > triggered a warning, or there is contradictory documentation.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Your use cases is reasonable. Have the normal transmit delay,
> > > > > and a
> > > > > bit shorted receive delay. So we should allow it. It just
> > > > > makes the
> > > > > validation code more complex :-(
> > > > 
> > > > I reviewed Oleksij's patch that introduced this warning. I just
> > > > want to
> > > > explain our thinking why this is a good thing, but yes maybe we
> > > > change
> > > > that warning a little bit until it lands in mainline.
> > > > 
> > > > The KSZ9031 driver didn't support for proper phy-modes until now
> > > > as it
> > > > don't have dedicated registers to control tx and rx delays. With
> > > > Oleksij's patch this delay is now done accordingly in skew
> > > > registers as
> > > > best as possible. If you now also set the rxc-skew-ps registers
> > > > those
> > > > values you previously set with rgmii-txid or rxid get
> > > > overwritten.
> 
> While I don't claim that the new implementation is incorrect, my
> biggest
> gripe is that this change breaks existing setups (cfr. Grygorii's
> report,
> plus see below).  People fine-tuned the parameters in their DTS files
> according to the old driver behavior, and now have to update their
> DTBs,
> which violates DTB backwards-compatibility rules.
> I know it's ugly, but I'm afraid the only backwards-compatible
> solution
> is to add a new DT property to indicate if the new rules apply.
> 
> > > > We chose the warning to occur on phy-modes 'rgmii-id', 'rgmii-
> > > > rxid' and
> > > > 'rgmii-txid' as on those, with the 'rxc-skew-ps' value present,
> > > > overwriting skew values could occur and you end up with values
> > > > you do
> > > > not wanted. We thought, that most of the boards have just
> > > > 'rgmii' set in
> > > > phy-mode with specific skew-values present.
> > > > 
> > > > @Geert if you actually want the PHY to apply RXC and TXC delays
> > > > just
> > > > insert 'rgmii-id' in your DT and remove those *-skew-ps values.
> > > > If you
> > > 
> > > That seems to work for me, but of course doesn't take into account
> > > PCB
> > > routing.
> 
> Of course I talked too soon.  Both with the existing DTS that triggers
> the warning, and after changing the mode to "rgmii-id", and dropping
> the
> *-skew-ps values, Ethernet became flaky on R-Car M3-W ES1.0.  While
> the
> system still boots, it boots very slow.
> Using nuttcp, I discovered TX performance dropped from ca. 400 Mbps to
> 0.1-0.3 Mbps, while RX performance looks unaffected.
> 
> So I did some more testing:
>   1. Plain "rgmii-txid" and "rgmii" break the network completely, on
> all
>      R-Car Gen3 platforms,
>   2. "rgmii-id" and "rgmii-rxid" work, but cause slowness on R-Car M3-
> W,
>   3. "rgmii" with *-skew-ps values that match the old values (default
>      420 for everything, but default 900 for txc-skew-ps, and the 1500
>      override for rxc-skew-ps), behaves exactly the same as "rgmii-
> id",
>   4. "rgmii-txid" with *-skew-ps values that match the old values does
> work, i.e.
>      adding to arch/arm64/boot/dts/renesas/salvator-common.dtsi:
>      +               rxd0-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               rxd1-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               rxd2-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               rxd3-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               rxdv-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               txc-skew-ps = <900>;
>      +               txd0-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               txd1-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               txd2-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               txd3-skew-ps = <420>;
>      +               txen-skew-ps = <420>;
> 
> You may wonder what's the difference between 3 and 4? It's not just
> the
> PHY driver that looks at phy-mode!
> drivers/net/ethernet/renesas/ravb_main.c:ravb_set_delay_mode() also
> does, and configures an additional TX clock delay of 1.8 ns if TXID is
> enabled.  Doing so fixes R-Car M3-W, but doesn't seem to be needed,
> or harm, on R-Car H3 ES2.0 and R-Car M3-N.

Hi Geert,

Sorry for chiming in on this topic but I also did make my thoughts about
this implementation.

The documentation in Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet-
controller.yaml clearly states, that rgmii-id is meaning the delay is
provided by the PHY and MAC should not add anything in this case.

Best Regards,
Philippe

> 
> > > Using "rgmii" without any skew values makes DHCP fail on R-Car H3
> > > ES2.0,
> > > M3-W (ES1.0), and M3-N (ES1.0). Interestingly, DHCP still works on
> > > R-Car
> > > H3 ES1.0.
> 
> FTR, the reason R-Car H3 ES1.0 is not affected is that the driver
> limits
> its maximum speed to 100 Mbps, due to a hardware erratum.
> 
> So, how to proceed?
> Thanks!
> 
> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
> 
>                         Geert
>